Afghanistan can win an ICC tournament in next decade: Steyn

Agency :

Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has expressed confidence that Afghanistan could clinch an ICC trophy within the next decade. However, he emphasized the need for the team to incorporate patience into both their individual performances and overall strategy.

Despite their thrilling victory over England in Lahore, Afghanistan fell short of securing a spot in the Champions Trophy 2025 knockout stage.

They suffered a defeat against South Africa in their opening game and faced challenges against Australia before rain ultimately halted the match. “Back in the day, a lot of players would go play county cricket. Or they would go play first-class cricket to improve their skills and improve their patience really. I think we live in a time now where people are not patient enough. We can hardly watch two seconds on an Instagram story and it just feels like the Afghanistan players are similar when they’re playing their cricket,” Steyn said.

“They want things to happen so quickly. This ball must be a wicket, there’s no patience to building up and taking a wicket. And sometimes, the batters are the same, they’re batting in the first over.

There’s so much movement happening in the crease, so they’re trying to hit a six and they’re trying to get the game going,

“I think a lot of them play T20 cricket around the world, which is great, it’s great for their pockets and it’s great for them to learn. But, maybe, spending some time in four-day games might help, because one-day cricket is essentially a shortened version of a Test match.

It’s got its moments where T20 is applied. But patience is one of the biggest things that Afghanistan players need to learn, and once they get that down, honestly, in the next decade, they could win ICC tournaments, for sure.”