Afghanistan stunned the world with their remarkable performance against the mighty Australia in the Super 8 round of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Afghanistan’s stunning win has spiced up Group 1 with India, Australia and Bangladesh still in contention to go through to the semifinal stage. If India manage to defeat Mitchell Marsh’s Australia in their last group stage game, the champions of 2021 will be at a risk of getting eliminated from the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup.

Over the past few years, Afghanistan have shown tremendous growth in white ball cricket despite getting limited number of international games in a calendar year. The Afghan boys mostly rely on franchise cricket and wherever they go, they leave an impact and play a huge role in their respective franchise’s success. Australia costed Afghanistan their semi-final spot last year in the ODI World Cup 2023, but this time they have returned the favour leaving the Aussies in a rough spot.

In the Super 8 match that was played at the Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent, Afghanistan outplayed Australia by 27 odd runs. The Aussies now take on India and they will have to defeat the ‘Men in Blue’ if they want to keep their fate in their own hands. Australia Test opener Usman Khawaja seemed pretty impressed with Afghanistan’s power show and has raised some burning questions over Cricket Australia‘s policies.

‘I totally understand and support the measures that have been taken by Australia, be it for women’s rights or any other burning issues. But I also support Afghanistan Cricket. If we can play against them in ICC events, then why not host them in Australia and play a bilateral series.‘, said Khawaja

Back in 2022, Cricket Australia announced a decision to withdraw from an Afghanistan vs Australia bilateral series following Taliban’s crackdown on women’s cricket. This decision made by the Australian Cricket Board was heavily slammed by the Afghanistan Cricket Board and they termed it as a pathetic act. Till this date, Australia haven’t played a bilateral series against Afghanistan and things don’t seem to change anytime soon.