It may have defeated arch-rival Pakistan for the first time in an ODI last week. It may have already performed at its best in a World Cup edition. Still, Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi reiterated that they are eyeing the big prize but not thinking too far ahead.
“Our aim and goal is to go to the next round. That’s what we are thinking about. But right now, we are not thinking how to go to the semifinal,” Shahidi said here on Sunday, ahead of its key clash against Sri Lanka.
“We think match by match and our mindset is busy in tomorrow’s Sri Lanka game right now. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. Then we will think about other games and moving forward to the semifinal.”
While Shahidi did not reveal his bowling combination, he admitted that the fact that Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have played each other so often over the last 12 months across formats will make it a clash of the equals.
“It will be a tough challenge for both the teams. First of all, we [have] played a lot of cricket together from last one year and we know each other very well. And we both have won our last games coming into this game,” he said. “We have more confidence from that game, so we will take that with us to the ground and we will try to go with a positive intent and play good cricket.”
