Jarrod Kimber wrote a really good article about Afghanistan being a team of No. 8’s. Afghanistan has played 71 T20 matches. Eight of these were at 187 or over. Their highest score against a “top” team was 172 against South Africa. Sri Lanka should have scored more against Afghanistan. Then again the strength of Afghanistan is their bowling. They have a choice of high-quality bowlers. There is no use of having good bowlers without having the batsmen to back you up. Equally, Afghanistan will not improve unless they start playing serious cricket against the top sides. Afghanistan is currently a conglomerate of high performing T20 franchise players. This has to change. Afghanistan was never in the hunt even though the score was low and their target was reduced further because of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. Sri Lanka had the bowling experience. That more than anything was the difference in the side.

I had great expectations that Afghanistan would cause a few upsets but then again they still have to play against South Africa and England.