T20 World Cup 2022: Afghanistan getting Super 12 entry is a positive sign: Naib

Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been assured a Super 12 spot in the T20 World Cup 2022 edition which will be played in Australia in October.

“First of all, you look at the start of the tournament, we beat West Indies in the warmup game, and also we beat Scotland in a one-sided game. And then if you look at the Pakistan side and India side, it’s not easy.

“They’re big teams and they didn’t give a single chance. We have a lot of work [to do] on our team and before this World Cup we didn’t have much time to prepare our team,” said Naib in an official ICC release.

“We came out here three days before the tournament. Our team and our boys deliver very quickly and we did a lot of good things here.

“Also, a good thing for us is we qualified for the next World Cup. We’re in the top eight. But it’s a lot of work now and we’re going to work harder and harder,” he added.

The Super 12 spots are decided through ICC Rankings. After suffering a defeat against Australia, West Indies slipped to the 10th spot in the rankings while Sri Lanka is in the ninth spot. Bangladesh is placed at the eighth spot while Afghanistan is in the seventh spot.

The top eight ranked teams directly secure their position in the Super 12 stage while the next two teams have to go through the qualification round.

Now, West Indies and Sri Lanka will have to go through the Qualification round to enter the Super 12 next year. West Indies crashed out of this year’s tournament after a well below par effort as none of their experienced stars like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo did not rise to the occasion.