Afghanistan aims to win Champions Trophy 2025, says Hashmatullah

Shahidi was also asked about how the team feels about England not boycotting the match against them in the Champions Trophy and whether it affects the team in any way.

As Afghanistan open their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign against South Africa at the National Stadium in Karachi, AFg skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi talked about his team's preparations ahead of the marquue event and how the Men in Blue won't be entering the tournament just for the sake of participation.  Check Afghanistan vs South Africa live score, match updates and full scorecard here | Champions Trophy 2025    AFG confident of doing well in Champions Trophy  When asked about his side's chances in the tournament and Hasmatullah Shahidi said "First of all, about people here - there are a lot of Afghans. They live here in Karachi and in Pakistan and also a lot of Pashtun people I think they support us. So yeah, yesterday there was a lot of crowds shouting for us and it feels good and it give us confidence that we have supporters here and about our performance. We are doing very good and in this tournament we are here to compete here and our aim is to win the final. We are not here just to participate here in this tournament.    We are definitely 100% looking to win this event and at the same time because we played a lot of quality cricket from last two years and it's a good chance for us because the boys are very experienced and these conditions is also suitable for us so we have a good chance and let's start it from tomorrow and hopefully we start with the win and we go with the same momentum throughout the tournament."  He was also asked about how the team feels about England not boycotting the match against them in the Champions Trophy and whether it affects the team in any way. To that the skipper said "I think as a sportsman our job is to play cricket and we don't care what's going on outside. We only control things inside the ground. So that's our job and other things cannot put us under pressure. In the world everyone knows that we are playing well and especially in the last three years our performance in the ground is very good. So, we can only control the things in the ground so we focus on that and in here also we just do the controllable things."