You're not laughing now are you?
For a nation that was seen as an Associate Nation, their rise to sitting at cricket's big table has been meteoric.
To cap the phrase from Nigel Farage, who is a politician in the UK, you're not laughing now are you? I use this phrase in regards to desrcibing Afghanistan's cricket team. Once upon a time, the Afghan's were a team, that had a very dangerous bowling attack, but just weren't able to click together as a batting unit.
There was no doubt, to those who were bit more knowledgable about the game, that Afghanistan are a side on the up, but for the more causal fans it was hard to see. Thumping defeats to India, being on the end of nail biting defeats to Pakistan.
Having witnessed this, dear reader I am not sure if you were like me, but I as a cricket fan, knew the Afghan's were close to bringing something special to the cricket world. Under the guidance of former England batsmen, Jonathan Trott, it looks like they're finally coming good on that promise.
With Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, they have an opening batting partnership that's up there with the world's best. Don't just take my word for it, 100-run partnerships after 100-run partnerships.
To be fair to Trott's side, they do have good batsmen lower-down too. With Fazal Faoorqi and Naveen Ul-haq as well as T20 skipper Rashid Khan, all of a sudden if you look at Afghanistan's team sheet, it's a team packed of talent.
Several of the Afghan side are in different T20 franchise leagues across the world. Now the Asian side can challenge South Africa in a World T20 semi-final, their first, but they shouldn't be scared, not one bit.
Afgainstan have deserved their place in the last four.
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