Did Afghanistan miss Noor Ahmad trick? Trott clarifies surprise call after NZ loss
T20 World Cup, NZ vs AFG: Jonathan Trott defended Afghanistan's decision to leave out Noor Ahmad against New Zealand, saying the selection was right and blaming the defeat on the pacers' failure to execute rather than the absence of a specialist spinner.
Jonathan Trott explained Afghanistan’s decision to leave out Noor Ahmad for their T20 World Cup clash against New Zealand, a move that drew attention after the Afghans slumped to a five-wicket defeat at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, February 8. The call raised eyebrows given Noor’s strong record at Chepauk.
In seven IPL matches at the venue, Noor has picked up 13 wickets, including a four-wicket haul. Trott, however, insisted that Afghanistan did not make the wrong selection call by omitting the left-arm spinner. Instead, he pointed to the lack of impact from the pace trio of Fazalhaq Farooqi, Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi and Azmatullah Omarzai, who failed to deliver as expected.
‘DIDN’T EXPECT A LOT OF SPIN’
Trott also conceded that Afghanistan may have slightly misread the conditions on a newly prepared Chennai surface, which offered way more assistance to the spinners as anticipated.
T20 World Cup, Afghanistan vs New Zealand Highlights
“We thought the cracks would produce a bit of uneven bounce, and that proved to be the case. I think the selection was right, but we didn’t bowl well enough — the seamers, unfortunately, didn’t execute as they should have. Credit to them; they put our seamers under pressure,” Trott said in the post-match press conference.
“Hindsight is always a dangerous thing. I didn’t expect the pitch to spin a great deal. Noor has experience playing here, but these are new wickets, so it’s not as if he’s bowled on them before. Still, whenever you lose, you naturally feel you could have done a few things differently,” Trott added.
Defending 183, Afghanistan got off to a brilliant start after Mujeeb Ur Rahman took the wickets of Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra. Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi also took one wicket apiece, but the pacers leaked 98 runs off 8.5 overs. The poor performance of the pacers allowed the Kiwis to record their highest run-chase in T20 World Cup history.
The Afghans will look to make amends when they face Aiden Markram’s South Africa on February 11 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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