There’s a need for speed, says Naib

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib admits his team would benefit from the emergence of a top-class pace bowler to supplement their quality spin attack.

Naib’s side, who have lost all eight of their matches, will play their last game at this year’s World Cup when they face the West Indies in Leeds on Thursday.

Although Afghanistan spinners Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman are potential match-winners, Naib knows the team needs a sharper pace attack to trouble the world’s best teams.

“If you look over the last two or three years, we’re depending on spinners, especially when Mujeeb joined the team,” Naib said. “We have two spinners. So if you work on the fast bowlers in the last two or three years, maybe we have good pacers now in this tournament.

“This is a problem. We didn’t find the fast bowlers’ department. We all worked on the spinners, so that’s why we have world-class spinners.”

Naib has not given up hope that his country’s talent scouts can unearth the kind of quality pace bowler he needs.

“If you find two, three, good fast bowlers, maybe it will be good for us here in the World Cup,” he said.

“Hopefully in the future we can find a good fast bowler. And I’m hoping I’ll be working on it.”

The skipper has also told the batsmen to take responsibility.

He said: “We played the last four or five games quite well. I’m happy with the performance of the team.

“But we lacked something late on, for the last game we played against Pakistan and especially against Bangladesh because we played really well.

“As I say each time, we have to play 50 overs, especially in the batting. It all depends on our batting strength. If we don’t bat well, it’s difficult for our bowlers to defend a small total.”