Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott on Tuesday praised the decision to appoint Dwayne Bravo as the team’s bowling coach for the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Trott is of the opinion that Bravo’s vast expertise in franchise cricket has had a significant effect on how Afghanistan bowlers conduct themselves, which made it simpler for Trott and enhanced the overall coaching experience.
In their opener, left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi demonstrated Afghanistan’s bowling prowess with an impressive 5/9 while Rahmanullah Gurbaz (76) and Ibrahim Zadran (70) laid a solid foundation with the bat. The Afghans eventually hammered tournament debutants Uganda by a whopping 125-run margin.
“DJ being in our side, fantastic. Really good coaches also who have been involved as players (which is great), but also extensive franchise experience in this format of the game,” Trott said during his post-match press conference.
“That player coming into the side can only be a good thing, especially when he becomes your coach because it makes your job easier and at least it improves coaching too, especially with bowlers
“We’ve seen him start his first game with us and we’ve seen some really good bowling from them so well done Dwayne. Nice start for the boys then,” he concluded.
Brian Masaba decided to focus on what was positive rather than dwelling on his team’s heavy defeat; he referred to Uganda’s participation at the World Cup where they sung their national anthem and saw their flag ‘as quite special.’
Masaba pointed out that there were nerves going into their first ever T20 World Cup match which ended up as a battle against an equally strong Afghan team.
“It was quite special for us to hear our national anthem again ad see our flag at world cup.” Masaba said after match.
“First game at world cup lots of nerves so good to get that out of way
“I’ll never forget this for the rest of my life. We will come out and try to play better next game. They got off to a pretty good start and then it was about fighting back. It was really in how we fought back, so I give full credit to the boys for that,” he concluded.
On Thursday Uganda’s second match in Group C will be against Papua New Guinea with Afghanistan taking on New Zealand at the same venue on Saturday.
