'Gavaskar gave us some valuable tips'

India’s former captain Sunil Gavaskar has given a confidence boost to the Afghanistan cricket team by praising its performance against the former champions in the ICC World Twenty20.

Afghanistan team’s coach, Kabir Khan disclosed that Gavaskar had visited their dressing room after the match against India and praised their performance.

“Sunil Gavaskar was kind enough to spend about 15 minutes with Afghan players and gave valuable tips to them about mental toughness. Along with other suggestions, Gavaskar emphasised on our fielding a lot,” Kabir told TV one channel.

“The Afghan players are thrilled by the gesture and hopeful of making it count on the field. The bottomline is that the more we play, the better we would get,” Kabir added.

Kabir, a former Pakistan Test pacer, said that his team needed to play more matches against top sides to improve in all departments of the game.

“We hardly play against quality oppositions therefore the crowd and camera increased the pressure on the players. Even our best fielders dropped catches, and later our batsmen succumbed to anxiety as well. We are working on the weakness, but it will take time,” he added.

Kabir, however, is optimistic that things would start falling in place for them with the passage of time.

Kabir said that with two state-of-the-art facilities at home, the Afghan cricket authorities are now in a position to develop domestic structure.