ICC World Cup 2019 | Need to Play Much Better Cricket: Gulbadin Naib

Afghanistan’s nine-wicket loss to South Africa in their group stage match at the ICC World Cup 2019 leaves them without a win in the tournament so far and skipper Gulbadin Naib believes that is down to the side repeating the same mistakes.

“We need to play much better cricket. It's bad luck. We did well in the opening overs but we repeated the same mistakes again, like we made in the previous match,” Naib said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Naib was quick to give Imran Tahir – who ended the match with figures of 4-29 – credit but added that the batsmen needed to do better in building partnerships in the middle overs.

“Credit goes to Tahir's spell, we weren't expecting it. We did well against the fast bowlers but the batsmen didn't take responsibility in the middle overs.

“We needed to build partnerships but we committed the same mistake by not having those partnerships.”

Rashid Khan made an impact for Afghanistan with the bat, top-scoring with a well-made 35. Yet Naib was quick to point out that the batsmen before him hadn’t done enough.

“We have a lot of batsmen in the team with Rashid Khan coming at 9. We need our lower-middle order batsmen to contribute in the upcoming matches.

“Asghar is a senior player that's why we gave him a chance. Najib is an outstanding batsman, we'll have him in the team in the upcoming matches.”

Afghanistan will next take on hosts England on Tuesday (June 18) at Old Trafford, Manchester.