Jonathan Trott | Afghanistan Coach | Afghanistan Vs. South Africa | ICC T20 World Cup | Pre Match

VIDEO COURTESY: ICC

Jonathan Trott (Afghanistan Coach) pre-match Press Conference - 25th June 2024
[Reporter:]

Jonathan, at the start of the tournament you were asked whether, there were a few critics of course who thought that Afghanistan had a fair shot of making it to the semi-finals. You gave a very guarded reply then. What's your response now?

[Jonathan Trott:]

Well, obviously they were right and they could see into the future. But obviously delighted, looking forward to the match against a strong South African side. We've played a game at Trinidad, so we've been there, there's familiarity about the ground and the conditions. So yeah, looking forward to it. And it's not every day you get to play in a World Cup semi-final. Obviously, this is the first time for Afghanistan, very proud. But I know those guys are very excited to go out there and to play against South Africa. We had a good game against them in the 50-over World Cup. There was neck and neck for a while. They obviously won the game. But we're looking forward to matching up against them.

[Reporter:]

If I can congratulate you on behalf of the whole Afghan nation. What would be the two or three learning points from this game that you think you could take into the semi-final against South Africa?

[Jonathan Trott:]

I just think batting we've got to be better all around - we left a lot of runs out there. Yes, it wasn't the greatest of wickets but so many times just bat on ball we just missed so many balls where we could have got singles or perhaps look to hit it in the gaps. But just a little bit of a narrow experience. I'm not sure if it's a little bit of nerves. But heck, we're in the semi-final now, nothing to lose. Very, very positive from now on in. But by no means do we feel like we're going into the semi-final just to compete. We're there to win the semi-final. We've seen we've beaten some major teams. We've won by large margins. We've won by tight margins. We've won in close games. So that's going to serve us well going forward to the semi-final.

[Reporter:]

Some of us felt that probably some of the over-celebration from the Australian game might have impacted the performance in today's game. It's going to be an even bigger celebration today. Are you in any way concerned that that might impact the game against South Africa as well? Do you want to stop them in their steps and tell them there is another huge game coming up?

[Jonathan Trott:]

No, I think it's important to celebrate moments, but I think what the real world-class players do or teams do is they're able to switch on and off at the right times. And I think for our guys this is a new experience, this is a new type of pressure as well. So, they get into grips with it the more they're playing these types of games the more accustomed they'll come to having the highs and lows that international cricket gives you but how to deal with it and stay on the right side of where you want to be mentally - whether you want to be over ambitious, overstimulated type thing, or you're too laid back. I think today we needed to be a little bit more ambitious of what we did.

[Reporter:]

When you took over as the Afghanistan head coach, did you at some point feel that this team could achieve what they have achieved today? And if I can put it bluntly to you, Jonathan, is it really happening? Do you believe this team could actually go on and achieve something that I don't even want to mention?

[Jonathan Trott:]

When I took over, yeah, I was astounded by the talent that I saw. I remember my first series was against Ireland and I saw a few of the batters play some shots that were just, I had no idea how good they were. But there was a certain rawness to it all and a sort of very, very, sort of no real structure to how the game was played or thought about. Very talented, but the game is played very mentally as well and becoming more structured, professional in the way that they approach the game, the way that they think about themselves and their teammates is the most important thing.

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