We're here to prove ourselves: Mangal

Without being unrealistic, Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal hoped to give India tough time in their World T20 opener here on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old said it was a learning phase for the team and that the T20 format offered them the best chance to compete with the best in the business.

Excerpts.

On playing against India: Definitely India is a big team and we are very excited and looking forward to this game. Of late, the boys have been playing really well. So tomorrow you will see a different team from what you saw in the last World T20.

On the lessons learnt from past World T20: We have learnt a lot. This is a learning phase for us. After playing India and South Africa in the last tournament, we played the qualifiers without some of our main players but still we played really well and qualified. After that we played Pakistan and Australia and according to the experts, the performances were good. We put up a good show. This time, India game is a game from where we can learn a lot and we can put up another good show and give them a hard time.

On expectations from this tournament: Coming into this event, the expectations are quite high. Everyone is saying that Afghanistan is capable of pulling off an upset, so I would say we can learn a lot from this tournament. Also, I would say T20 format is suitable for my team. In the shorter format of the game, three batsmen or two bowlers have to click on a particular day. We are here for exposure and to prove ourselves that we belong to this stage.

On support in Afghanistan:  The support is quite huge. Almost every single one knows back home that Afghanistan is in Sri Lanka and participating in the World T20. We have received a lot of people from Afghanistan. I don’t know what is going on there but every single Afghan is supporting the Afghanistan national cricket team, regardless of who he is.