Afghanistan is "never going to be taken lightly" by any team after his "resilient" side knocked England out of the Champions Trophy with a memorable win, head coach Jonathan Trott has asserted. Ibrahim Zadran's majestic 177 and pacer Azmatullah Omarzai's fifer trumped Joe Root's masterful hundred, as the Afghanistan registered a thrilling eight-run win against England on Wednesday. Looking ahead to their next must-win game against Australia, Trott also said that Afghanistan team will take confidence form their fine showings against the Aussies in recent World Cup outings.
"Since I've been coach we've played against Australia three times and we've been in the game each of those games. So, we should take a lot of confidence from that.
"And I think certainly what happened in the World Cup, T20 World Cup, and I say this to the players as well, that Afghanistan's never going to be taken lightly ever again," Trott said at the post-match press conference.
"I see every game that we play is going to be competitive and every game we go into I expect to win," the Englishman added.
Wins by Afghanistan against established Test nations are no longer seen as upsets and recent performances on the world stage mean they cannot afford to fly under the radar.
"Australia aren't going to take us lightly," Trott said.
"So, we've got to be prepared. In the past, perhaps people would have seen the fixture and thought it was a little bit easier than playing a historic Test nation. But in this format, in these conditions, I don't see that." With two points from two games, Afghanistan are still in the semifinal race. A win against Australia will take them to four points, which will elevate them to the top two.
Australia have three points from two games after their washout against South Africa. A loss for Afghanistan will mean they are out of the competition.
"I'm going to make sure when they wake up tomorrow, they enjoy tonight, (but) wake up tomorrow ready for Australia," Trott had told the media after their nail-biting victory over England.
"As soon as they wake up tomorrow, the focus is on Australia." Having seen first-hand Afghanistan's rise to cricketing prominence, Trott attributed it to the battle-hardened side's self-belief and resilience.
"There's a resilience to them. I think if you add to some cricketing experience and cricketing match awareness with regards to batting in particular, with regards to how you pace the innings ... it's not always down to one person.
"We saw Ibrahim, the way that he's done today, we've seen Gurbaz do it in the past ... we have Gulbadin at eight at the moment, who can come in and change games," he said.
"So that self-belief is important and it starts within, but it's also quite infectious and it spreads within the squad." Their clash with Australia has turned into a virtual knockout with the winner entering the semifinals and loser exiting the tournament.
Trott is hoping for strong support for his team on Friday.
"Hopefully Friday will be a massive sell out and people will turn up or take the day off work and come and watch us from two o'clock onwards. I think it's great for the guys.
"I think it's a huge experience and these players will never forget nights like this. We've had a few other nights along the way in ICC events and series' and that will just add to the confidence that we should hopefully take in on Friday," he concluded.
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