Focussed on our own skills rather than opposition: Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan always wanted his teammates to have faith in their own abilities instead of fretting over their opposition’s strengths.

Rashid Khan always wanted his teammates to have faith in their own abilities instead of fretting over their opposition's strengths and he was ecstatic that it's exactly what they did during Afghanistan's memorable 84-run victory over New Zealand in the T20 World Cup game in Georgetown, Guyana.

Defending 159, Afghanistan shot out New Zealand for 75 with left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi and the skipper himself decimating the opposition with four wickets apiece.

"Now, we need to beat the teams with our own skills rather than think about the opposition and that's the only thing I have been telling the guys like just make sure we look into our skills," Rashid said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

For Rashid, it is the effort that matters more than the results as he believes that if a team is good enough, results take care of itself.

"It doesn't matter whoever we play, it's more about how good you are, how good you're going to play and what type of energy you are coming with into the ground and that for me is very important.

"I don't care about the result a lot to be honest. I care more about the effort we put, that's something which gives me lots of pleasure." In the last year's ODI World Cup, Afghanistan famously stunned England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while in the 2016 T20 World Cup, they secured a memorable win over eventual champions West Indies.

"We haven't had those victories in T20 World Cups. We had in ODI, but in T20, I feel like this was one of the best performance from the guys," said the skipper who starred in his masterful bowling act of 4/17.