'Both wins were important but...': Hashmatullah Shahidi picks most significant victory for Afghanistan between Australia and Pakistan

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi reckoned that defeating Pakistan in the ODI World Cup 2023 was their team's most significant win. Hashmatullah-led side defeated the Men in Green for the first time in India during the ODI World Cup match at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. However, their campaign ended after Australia defeated them by three wickets. After ODI World Cup loss, Afghanistan took their revenge from the ODI World Cup 2023 winners by defeating them in the T20 World Cup 2024 which was hosted by USA and West Indies later this year. 

In an interaction with Shubankar Mishra's YouTube channel, Shahidi was asked to pick one which victory he deemed more significant against Australia in the 2024 T20 World Cup or the triumph over Pakistan. The left-handed batter picked Afghanistan's win against Pakistan because the people were incredibly happy. 

"Both wins were important, but the victory over Pakistan in the ODI World Cup was monumental; people were incredibly happy," he said.

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He recalled Afghanistan's previous losses against Pakistan saying that they came very close to winning in 2019 T20 World Cup but slipped away from them in the end.

 

"Back home, people were very happy, and if you look at the previous World Cups, the Asia Cup, and the series we had played against Pakistan, we had come very close but didn't win. If we talk about the 2019 World Cup, the match was in our hands but slipped away from us in the end. In the 2022 Asia Cup, Fazalhaq got hit for two sixes by Naseem Shah. Then there was the series against Sri Lanka where we also came very close; one match went to the last over, and Pakistan won that as well. So we were feeling very heavy inside because we had lost almost 8 matches that we had been winning," Shahidi said.
 

Afghanistan are arguably the second-best team in Asia after India, they recently featured in a three-match T20I series against South Africa where they defeated Proteas 2-1. 

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