Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has opined that Afghanistan’s decision
not to play Noor Ahmad in their T20 World Cup 2026 match against New Zealand potentially cost them the game as well. He added that although Afghanistan batted well and set a challenging target for New Zealand, their bowling attack failed to do well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “The day game was between New Zealand and Afghanistan on the Chennai ground, a match that you must not lose. If you are New Zealand, please don’t, because this team eliminated you last time. I wasn’t sure how Afghanistan would do in batting. They did alright in batting, but it’s the bowling. The sharpness was not seen in the bowling. They didn’t play Noor. They said that it didn’t seem like the cracks would trouble. Not playing Noor on the Chennai ground where he plays the IPL proved a little too costly.”

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However, Aakash Chopra shared that Afghanistan had posted a challenging total and had claimed two early wickets before Tim Seifert (65 off 42), Glenn Phillips (42 off 25), Mark Chapman (28 off 17) and Daryl Mitchell (25* off 14) helped New Zealand win.

“Afghanistan batted first, and they scored a lot of runs. There was a flourish as well, and they reached a total from where they pushed New Zealand. Mujeeb Ur Rahman had picked up two wickets in two balls. Tim Seifert played a good knock, Mark Chapman and Glenn Phillips scored crucial runs, Daryl Mitchell was present at the end, and they won,” he said.

“New Zealand’s next (third) match is against South Africa. So that will be an important game. Afghanistan are slightly now on a banana skin. If they don’t beat South Africa, then that’s it, Afghanistan’s story will be finished,” Aakash Chopra concluded.