The Afghanistan allrounder plays for Gujarat Titans in the IPL ©BCCI
Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai feels that being part of Gujarat Titans in the upcoming Indian Premier League will help him prepare for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled in USA and West Indies in June 2024.
“Certainly it (taking part in the IPL) will help me for the World Cup. IPL is a top league and all the big players of the world take part in the competition and all of them are very experienced so it will be good for me that I will have the experience for the World Cup,” Omarzai told Cricbuzz during an exclusive chat.
“I will have preparation (for the world cup) considering it is such a tournament that all the games are close and there is lot of pressure involved and lot of crowd comes. The environment is good and competitive. It will be good for me as the pressure that will come in the World Cup I will get used to in the IPL,” he said.
“The plan is simple (for IPL) and it is same for all. Everywhere I go I have to work hard and believe in my skill whether it is IPL or BPL or any kind of cricket. My motto is very simple and that is just believe in your skill and work hard and Insha’Allah as I am practicing and doing hard work as well as playing matches, I will be carrying a good mindset going into the IPL,” he said.
Rangpur Riders hold a special place in Omarzai’s life, considering he got a promotion in the batting order in the last edition of BPL, and also got to bowl with the new ball – which he then did for the national side as well.
“At international level, I was batting very late and I was bowling also late and getting one or two overs. When I came here, I spoke to Sohan bhai (skipper Nurul Hasan) and Shanian (Riders’ executive director Shanian Taneem) that I want the new ball and they gave me the new ball (last season). I started performing and when I returned to the national team I was getting the new ball and Alhamdulillah my performance was good,” Omarzai said.
“As far as batting is concerned in our national team, we have a deep batting order and my position was late in T20 and one-day. In the World Cup we couldn’t have a combination and for two years we tried so that team combination is formed and as the combination could not be found, I was given a batting promotion in the order. That is the reason they tried me and Alhamdulillah I scored 62 runs against India (in the World Cup) and through that I got a promotion in the batting order (in the Afghanistan team),” he said.
“It is true that Riders seems to be my second home. After Afghanistan, if I have received love from anywhere it is in this team and this is the team that helped me to showcase my potential as I got the new ball and I have also got batting opportunity. Since I’ve been playing for Rangpur Riders, my game and confidence level improved a lot,” he said.
Apart from being part of Riders in the ongoing BPL, Bangladesh hold a special place in Omarzai’s life considering he got permission to take up cricket as a profession only after he and his family members watched an Afghanistan team beat Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in 2015.
“Probably that match was in 2015 and it was a match of the Asia Cup where Afghanistan beat Bangladesh. That was my first match that I was seeing live and after that game my Abbu gave me permission to play professional cricket. Before that I was playing tape-ball cricket. But after that game, my family gave me permission to play and take it up as a profession,” he said.
Omarzai also tried to bust myths about the state of his country considering the perpetual political situation there.
“Look people are always assuming that conditions are very bad in Afghanistan and we cannot go out of the house. But we do go out and also roam around after sunset and there is no problem with that. Everything was normal back then, and it is normal now. There is some lacking as far facilities for cricketers are concerned, but there are facilities,” Omarzai said.
“Earlier there was only one ground but now there are six grounds where we play domestic cricket and now we are building another ground. ACB is planning to host international matches there and the required facilities will be there,” he said.
Omarzai also stressed on the impact Jonathan Trott has had as head coach of an improved Afghanistan side, getting them to perform as a unified force.
“Look the Afghan players have lot of talent and they proved it in different leagues but when they came to the national team they could not perform like the way they performed in the leagues.
“Trott came and gave us the mindset that we play for Afghanistan and remain united and it is ok we will play in leagues and we will have experience. But we need to use the experience that we get from those leagues in the national team. We have to be one team and one family and the thing that he has done is he brought all of us together. That is why we are performing well,” he said.
Omarzai also felt that their success at last year’s ODI World Cup wasn’t specifically down to the short camp they had for the tournament, but that it was a result of long-term planning.
“It is not like you prepare before the World Cup and you get ready for the World Cup. This preparation starts two to three years before the World Cup and our preparation started in 2021. Our management started to make us ready for the World Cup by giving us more opportunities. From that time, our preparation started and that is why we did well in the World Cup,” he said.
© Cricbuzz
Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
