<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan will return to the cricket field in the Legends League Cricket as part of the India Capitals squad. The tall right-hander, who was one of the first to bring Afghanistan's cricket to the global map, is excited to ply his trade for the Gautam Gambhir-led side.&nbsp;</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ahead of the tournament, Asghar Afghan, in an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, expressed his views on LLC, Afghanistan's performance in the Asia Cup, their issues in domestic cricket, the greatness of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and much more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asghar Afghan: Afghanistan played well in the Asia Cup but I believe we should have won the tournament. We were playing in the UAE. We knew the conditions really well. And T20 is our strongest format.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We have a lot of players who play in different leagues across the globe. We have a lot of individual experience and talent, that's why we should have won the tournament. I think Afghanistan were one of the favourites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The biggest factor is our schedule. We don't play that often against bigger teams and that's the reason why you see us not being able to win close contests and last-over finishes. It happened against Pakistan. If we don't play against top teams regularly then this will keep happening. We will drag the match till the end but won't be able to close it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We can't produce multiple world-class players if we don't play against world-class teams. We play against quality opposition only once a year and that too maybe in a multi-nation tournament, things can never improve like this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, our domestic cricket is not as strong as it should be. The board needs to work on it a lot. From what I have seen over the years, our domestic cricket is not taken seriously. Our senior players don't play in it and prefer to play leagues abroad.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This also affects our young players, who don't know how to deal with pressure situations in big matches against big players. The team which played in the Asia Cup has been together for four-five years and as I said earlier, there are players who play in different leagues, which is why they are able to compete but the upcoming generation is not ready. We have a lot of talent in Afghanistan.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If we get regular matches in domestic cricket as well at the international level, our team can go a long way. Source: HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>