T20 World Cup 2024: Confident of restricting India with our bowling options, says Afghanistan fielding coach McDermott

Afghanistan’s fielding coach Shane McDermott is confident to restrict India’s star-studded and power-packed batting lineup to the “smallest total” when his side faces Rohit Sharma’s men on Thursday in a Super 8 T20 World Cup clash.

McDermott is not solely relying on Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi, who is the highest wicket-taker of the tournament so far with 12 scalps, as he believes he has plenty of other options available to get them the early breakthroughs.

FOLLOW LIVE | India vs Afghanistan World Cup Super 8s match

“India are one of the best teams in the world, it is going to be a great challenge for us, but we need to concentrate on things that we do well to make sure that we put up a good contest tomorrow,” McDermott told PTI in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

“Well, you never know, if it is not him (Fazalhaq Farooqi) then maybe it is Naveen or one of our spinners, so we have a lot of options and we are not only relying on Fazal even though he is having a great World Cup so far so we are confident with the options that we have that we can take as many wickets as possible and restrict them to the smallest total if they intend to bat first,” he said.