"No pressure on us...": Afghanistan skipper Shahidi ahead of CT2025 opener against South Africa

Karachi [Pakistan], February 20 (ANI): Ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy campaign opener against South Africa, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said that the team faces no pressure against Proteas and is here to win the title.
Afghanistan will kickstart their ICC Champions Trophy campaign against South Africa at February 21 at Karachi, followed by matches against England (February 26 at Lahore), and Australia (February 28 at Lahore).
Speaking ahead of the match as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Shahidi said that there is a lot of difference between Afghanistan from the year 2019 till now and they have defeated Proteas in an ODI series before the CT2025.
"Because right now we are focusing what we can do in this tournament and I believe that our team is more ready for this tournament and we are focusing on our own team. There is no pressure on us," he added.
Afghanistan is missing their teenage mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar due to injury, but they still have enough weaponry in form of Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Nabi and Nangeylia Kharote. They will also be enjoying a lot of fan support in Karachi.
"First of all, about people here - there are a lot of Afghans. They live here in Karachi and in Pakistan and also a lot of Pashtun people, I think, they support us. So yeah, yesterday there was a lot of crowds shouting for us [during training], and it feels good, and it gives us confidence that we have supporters here and about our performance," he added.
This will be Shahidi-led Afghanistan's first Champions Trophy appearance and the captain made it clear they are here to win the title. They have plenty to draw experience from, their sixth spot finish in the 50-over World Cup with four wins and five losses and a semifinal run in the T20 World Cup last year, which saw them beat Test nations like England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia.
"We are doing very good and, in this tournament, we are here to compete and our aim is to win the final. We are not here just to participate here in this tournament. We are definitely 100 per cent looking to win this event and at the same time because we played a lot of quality cricket from last two years and it is a good chance for us because the boys are very experienced and these conditions are also suitable for us. So we have a good chance and let us start it from tomorrow. Hopefully, we start with the win and we go with the same momentum throughout the tournament," he added.
Despite having secured a full-member status in June 2017, Afghanistan has not had any dedicated home venue and have played their home matches at UAE, Dehradun, Lucknow and Greater Noida. Shahidi also talked about cricketing facilities and domestic cricket in Afghanistan, expressing hope to play international cricket in Afghanistan in future.
"I have answered this in Pashto but let me say it again because in media I heard a lot from other countries that they [Afghanistan] do not have facilities, they do not have stadiums, they do not have academies. It is totally wrong," Shahidi said.
We have good facilities. We have cricket academies. We have a High Performance Centre in Kabul and Jalalabad, and also, we have stadiums in every zone of Afghanistan. So, we have the facilities to call a team to come to Afghanistan but in our country there were some security issues that is why other countries are not coming but hopefully soon, as soon as possible, one of the countries will come to Afghanistan and you will see the crowd also."
"When we play domestic cricket, it is fully packed. Even people wait outside the stadium and try to come and watch the domestic game, like more than 50,000, 40,000 or 30,000 people coming for the finals of an event. I know that if any team come to Afghanistan, there will be like thousands of people, fans come and arrive to the stadium because there is a lot of craze for cricket. There are a lot of people who love cricket. So hopefully that day comes and hopefully it comes soon," he concluded.
Afghanistan squad for ICC Champions Trophy: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Farid Malik, Naveed Zadran. Reserves: Darwish Rasooli, Bilal Sami. (ANI)