Afghanistan captain says his team will scare India

Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal thinks his team his ready to give India a scare in their World Twenty20 match, and vied Tuesday to live up to the expectations that it is capable of creating upsets against the top teams in the game.

Mangal told reporters ahead of Wednesday's match that cricket in Afghanistan has developed since they played the last tournament in the West Indies two years ago, and it wants to prove it belongs in the big league.

He said every Afghan back home is aware that their national cricket team is playing the tournament and there is good support.

"Tomorrow we'll see a different team from what we were at the last World Cup," Mangal said, referring to their losses to India and South Africa in 2010. "Coming into this World Cup expectations are quite high. Everyone is saying Afghanistan is capable of creating an upset. So I would say we can learn a lot from it and we'll prove ourselves that we belong on that stage."

Afghanistan won a warm-up match on this tour against a Sri Lanka A team that included six players who have played international cricket. The formidable 51-run win should give the team more confidence ahead of the games against India and England in Group A.

It has talented batsmen like Mohammad Shahzad, who has scored three one-day international centuries and three half-centuries in Twenty20 internationals and maintains a strike rate of 112. Karim Sadiq has two one-day international hundreds.

Legspin bowler Samiullah Shenwari has 28 one-day international wickets and nine Twenty20 international wickets, good numbers for a bowler who has had little international exposure.

However the team will be handicapped without Hamid Hassan who has impressed with his fast bowling but will miss the opening match due to an injury.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said he will not take Afghanistan lightly, but was pleased with his team's preparations following a win against Sri Lanka and loss against Pakistan in warm-up matches.

The match will be played at R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

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