New Zealand captain and star batter Kane Williamson braces for the Afghanistan challenge as he touted them as “one of the better bowling attacks” in the T20 World Cup 2024. New Zealand and Afghanistan will square off against each other at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, West Indies on June 8, Saturday. 13 matches into the T20 World Cup 2024 and the Black Caps will begin their campaign now. The challenge for the Williamson-led side would be that they will face an opponent who warmed up to the tournament with a run-rate-boosting win over Uganda at the same venue in Guyana.
Williamson acknowledged the challenge and heaped praise on the Afghanistan team for their skill-set and showed his awareness regarding the threat the team could pose in the marquee tournament.
“Certainly a number of players in their side… I mean, all of the players, to be honest, they have such a skillful team, one of the better bowling attacks, I think, in the competition,” Williamson said in the pre-match press conference.
“And we’ve seen that in franchise competitions, the involvement, the number of Afghani players. And they’re getting better and better,” Williamson said.
“They’re getting more and more top-level cricket. And we saw at the last World Cup how strong they were in the ODI format too. So, a really highly skilled team and a number of threats.”
The Afghanistan team have risen through the ranks and created an image for themselves that they are no longer the team which can be taken lightly. They enhanced their reputation with an impeccable show in ODI World Cup 2023 as they finished off at the 6th spot in the points table. They also started off their campaign on a winning note with a 125-run win over Uganda. Fazlhaq Farooqi picked up a 5-wicket haul to bundle out Uganda at 58 runs after the Afghan batters posted a daunting target of 184 runs.
Williamson also hailed his GT teammate and Afghanistan team’s captain Rashid Khan and expressed his excitement about taking the field against the Afghan team.
“Obviously, Rashid’s been around for a while now, although still a young man, but an extremely gifted world-class player. But there are a number of other players in their side throughout, really, that make them an exciting team and a real challenge,” Williamson added.
