ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

November 1, 2022

Jonathan Trott

The Gabba

Afghanistan

Post Match Media Conference

Sri Lanka - 148/4, Afghanistan - 144/8

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to post match press conference with Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott.

Q. Jonathan, just first up, how's Rashid Khan?

JONATHAN TROTT: He's being looked at at the moment. I think he just jarred his knee. Also had a bit of a back issue coming into the World Cup. So that's just flared up again. I think he'll be okay.

Q. You think he'll be okay?

JONATHAN TROTT: Well, we don't know about that, but hopefully no serious injuries is what I'm trying to say. Thank goodness.

Q. Afghanistan are now out of contention for the semifinals, but how do you reflect on this campaign at this stage?

JONATHAN TROTT: I'd say there's been some good parts and there's been some really average parts. We haven't got things right. We seem to be able to get ourselves into positions but then not utilise them and actually then kick on with the batting.

So twice now, against England and this game. I'm not saying against England we would have had a massive score, but we would have certainly been able to put a lot more pressure on England if we'd been a little bit smarter in the last couple overs, and the same here.

I think we lost four overs and we only got 31 runs, so 24 balls. Only being four wickets down, that's not good enough. Those sort of areas are what can sort of take the game away from the opposition, or if you don't get it right, bring them back into it.

Q. What differently would you have advised the team to do going into this game with Sri Lanka today? Did you think that your team executed as you all planned coming into this game with Sri Lanka today? Or do you think you were a few runs short?

JONATHAN TROTT: We were definitely a few runs short. When your last over goes to three runs, you certainly left a few out there. We could have done a lot better with the bat. We got into position to kick on and didn't utilise the short boundary anywhere near enough.

So work to be done. Big game against Australia in Adelaide.

Q. Just on that game, Australia themselves have got a few injury worries. Do you sort of look at that, do you wonder if you'll be playing the same side? Does it not matter to you at all?

JONATHAN TROTT: I think whatever outfit Australia put out was going to be strong. Let's not kid ourselves. So where they got a strong squad side, it's always going to be a tough match and a fantastic round.

Hopefully we can dust ourselves down, travel onto Adelaide tomorrow, have a good practice on Thursday, and get ready for what's going to be a tough game.

Q. Is Rashid someone that, if he'd be able to play, you can draw on his experiences both in Adelaide playing T20 cricket and also the Australian players?

JONATHAN TROTT: Yeah, for sure, I think the case with a lot of players, the likes of Mujeeb and Nabi, who have played against the Australian players before.

I think yesteryears, when nothing was perhaps known of players, but nowadays there's so much analytics of the game and analysis of things, but also very various franchises now that players get to play with various players or against them quite often.

So it's hopefully going to be a good game, and we know the areas we need to improve at.

Q. The frustration for you that you probably had an opportunity with the start of your bowling and your four top batsmen were in the 20s, just not having that one guy to go on.

JONATHAN TROTT: You need the person to go on and hold the innings together. We seem to get in position and then give it towards Sri Lanka.

It's not the first time it's happened. It's certainly something we need to get better at. The awareness and skill of the players certainly needs to improve.

Q. I know you can't do anything about the weather. Is it just a relief to actually play a game of cricket and let the cricket do the talking rather than the rain?

JONATHAN TROTT: Yeah, for sure. That's a great point. Let's get out there and play. A historic ground like this for the guys is always good. Obviously the result would have been nice to be a little bit different.

Nobody likes to continually train and practise. They always want to go out there and play and see themselves improving and push themselves against the best players in the world.

That's why we're here, and we're hoping to pick up a few wins. We got an opportunity on Friday, and that will be great.

Q. You alluded to it. Training and training and training, how hard -- how big is it to get to this point of getting the players out for a game rather than the frustration of the last couple?

JONATHAN TROTT: I don't think it's having to get the players up. We saw they were very keen to play today and very motivated to play and do well. It's about winning those key little moments, which we didn't do today, unfortunately.

Credit to Sri Lanka. I thought they managed that run chase pretty well and put pressure back onto our players. There's certainly things we could have done differently with the ball and try to make it a little more difficult for Sri Lanka.

Hopefully we'll learn from that and keep in the memory bank for Friday but also in the future, the players learning under pressure like this and what's the best option to go to with regards to bowling and also getting the field right in the right areas on these types of fields that are big square and pretty short straight on one side.