KARACHI: Hashmatullah Shahidi stifled a smile, but the corners of his mouth betrayed his excitement every time Afgha­nistan’s fan following in Karachi was mentioned during his press conference here on Wednesday.

Shahidi’s side will become the first Afghanistan team to play here at the National Bank Stadium when they take on South Africa in their ICC Champions Trophy opener on Friday, with the team’s fans expected to show up at the venue in numbers.

The metropolis is home to a massive population of Afghan diaspora and Shahidi couldn’t deny that a lot of them would be their 12th man against the Proteas.

“… there are a lot of Afghans, they live here in Karachi and in Pakistan and also a lot of Pashtun people I think they support us,” Shahidi said, mentioning how fans came in earlier during Afgha­nistan’s practice sessions. “.. yesterday there was a lot of crowds shouting for us and it feels good and it give us confidence that we have supporters here and about our performance.”

Although its Afghanistan’s first time playing in the city, they have a good sense of conditions and pitc­hes here, thanks to the Afghan pla­y­ers’ regular appearances over the years in the Pakistan Super Lea­g­ue, while some of them have also played club cricket in the country.

“We have played matches here before, many players have played in PSL and in last Asia Cup we have played matches here in Lahore as well,” Shahidi said. “Second important thing is that the condition here resembles a lot of the pitches in our country.

“Our players have a lot of experience on these Asian pitches, and we play a lot of matches in Dubai and in India so these pitches do not have much difference.”

The conditions at play make Afghanistan one of the most dangerous sides playing in the tournament, equipped with a spin battery featuring the likes of Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed and veteran Mohammad Nabi. The team also boasts the presence of explosive batters in Rahma­nullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran.

“There will be an advantage for us because we have good spinners,” noted Shahidi. “And if we see the conditions here, they are very good for batting.”

South Africa, who were beaten by Afghanistan when they last met in a One-day International series, have also gained some form of familiarity with the conditions in Pakistan.

The side participated in the tri-nation series — involving the hosts and New Zealand — preceding the Champions Trophy. However, led by Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s ODI form has been poor lately, with losses in their last five matches.

Bavuma knows they will be up against a solid team in their Champions Trophy opener.“We’ve got a proper opening game against Afghanistan who are super, super competitive, especially in these types of conditions,” he admitted in the pre-match press conference. “So, the challenge that they’ll bring from a slow bowling point of view, their spinners, and their bowlers, and also their swing bowlers, their seamers, that’s really going to ask certain questions of us.”

With a number of their top players missing in the tri-nation series, South Africa will go into the Champions Trophy with a full-strength team, barring the absence of pacer Anrich Nortje.

But all eyes will be on their hard-hitting duo of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, who’d thrive on the batting-friendly wicket in Karachi.

“From a batting point of view, scoreboard pressure is a big thing. Guys getting in, making sure they go get big so we can challenge for those 330 — 340 — 350 type of sco­res,” Bavuma noted. “So yeah, I think with all of that it should be exciting.”

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2025