Afghanistan's T20 World Cup 2026 campaign ended with an imposing 82-run win against Canada on Thursday. It was only a bittersweet ending to their tourney which started with a lot of hope. The Rashid Khan-led side managed only two wins from four games.
They lost one and suffered an agonising defeat in a double Super Over after a tie in the group phase. With a third-place finish in Group D, the team has failed to reach even the Super 8s. The two wins came against lowly ranked sides - UAE and Canada.
Before the T20 World Cup, there were high hopes from Afghanistan considering what they had achieved in the previous edition. At the 2024 T20 World Cup, they went all the way to the semi-finals. Their run in the tournament included famous wins over New Zealand and Australia. The Blackcaps were bowled out for 75 and the Aussies couldn't chase a target of 149.
Several individual performances stood out in that historic run. Fazalhaq Farooqi was the tournament's joint-highest wicket taker along with Arshdeep Singh with 17 scalps. Rashid and Naveen-ul-Haq picked 14 wickets and 13 wickets respectively.
The batters too had left their mark. Rahmanullah Gurbaz had amassed 281 runs, the most by a batter in the tournament. Giving him company on the list was his teammate and fellow opener Ibrahim Zadran with 231 runs.
Their form in the months leading into this World Cup made the team's fans believe that at least another semi-final run was on the cards. They notched a 3-0 away series win over Zimbabwe last November. That was followed by a 2-1 series win against the West Indies in UAE in January.
Considering that both Zimbabwe and West Indies have secured qualification for the Super 8s, Afghanistan will surely be feeling that they could have done better in this edition. Further, many Afghan players know the Indian conditions well as they regularly play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
At this World Cup, Afghanistan were good but only in moments and some of their decisions were questionable. In their opener against New Zealand, Rashid picked Mujeeb Ur Rahman ahead of Noor Ahmad, who has the experience of playing at Chepauk with Chennai Super Kings.
In the tied game against South Africa, Rashid was reluctant to bowl either of the Super Overs. They were bowled by Farooqi and Azmatullah Omarzai. Rashid could have utilised his experience of playing at the Narendra Modi Stadium as a Gujarat Titans players when he was David Miller's teammate. Miller's two sixes against Omarzai proved to be the difference in the end.
While two pacers delivered those overs for Afghanistan, Aiden Markram, the South African skipper, took the risk of giving the second Super Over to Keshav Maharaj, a finger-spinner.
Afghanistan are most potent in T20 cricket and they will be expected to learn from the mistakes and comeback stronger in the following ICC tournaments.
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