Afghanistan coach Andy Moles believes World Cup is changing perceptions of the country

AFGHANISTAN coach Andy Moles believes his side's riotous progress through the World Cup has helped to change perceptions about a country that was better known for suicide bombers than cricketers a month ago.

Andy MolesGETTY

Andy Moles feels Afghanistan's World Cup showing has changed perceptions of the country

The rotund 54-year-old former Warwickshire opener goes toe-to-toe with Peter Moores' beleaguered England side here tomorrow.

And while he accepted the chances of landing a knockout blow might be remote, he believes they can continue to change perceptions about Afghanistan as well as dangle the promise of a better future for hundreds of thousands of cricket-mad youngsters back home.

Moles' feeling of pride in his sometimes naive, often chaotic but undoubtedly passionate group of players is obvious.

"We were under no illusions that we had come here to win the tournament. But we wanted to show the whole world what Afghanistan is capable of and we've won a lot of friends," he said.

"The biggest thing for me is the group of players underneath this group, which is a really strong group of 20 to 25. We need to get a lot of cricket in the next couple of years and push forward to keep the trend going with Afghanistan cricket.

"Cricket in Afghanistan is like the Indians going home - these players are idolised. When we beat Scotland there were massive celebrations in the streets all around Afghanistan.

"These players are leaders and are delivering a unifying message, not just in Afghanistan but around the world. Here we are talking about Afghanistan and a month ago it would only be about suicide bombers.

"Here we have 15 young men on a world stage celebrating a sport and they've done well to impress people. They've got to keep it going on now. We don't want to stand still."

Moles, who played for Warwickshire for 11 years until retiring in 1997, has been around the houses as a coach starting with a provincial side in Kimberley, South Africa, before having short stints in charge of Kenya, Scotland and New Zealand before taking on a role as batting coach with Afghanistan in June last year.

Morgan We ve not performed [AMBIENT]

Hopefully if we can play well and hold our nerve, and we need to be at our very, very best and we need England not to be at their best, we can get that shock

Andy Moles

Those three previous national jobs all finished with Moles having "differences of opinion" with senior players, which makes his acceptance from a rather wild and unpredictable country like Afghanistan all the more unlikely.

Moles' brother, who worked for the Metropolitan Police in anti-terrorism, was not keen on him taking the role, much less him travelling around Kabul. But the coach insists he has had no problems.

"He's now a global security manager for Apple and gets all the info through the security channels so he hears a bit more than the person on the street. He advised me not to go, but he realises it's my line of work," said Moles.

"I've been there three months out of the eight [in the job] but I have never felt threatened. There is obviously lots of military around travelling the streets, AK47s everywhere, but you have to be smart and make the right choices. The Afghan public in Kabul have made me feel very welcome."

Moles watched England lose to Bangladesh on Monday, which he said "was sad to see", but he believes that a fear of further failure may be Afghanistan's most potent weapon.

"They are not in the best of nick at the moment and we still believe that, if at the top of the order with the bat especially we just show a bit more composure, we've still got a scare in us," he added.

"Hopefully if we can play well and hold our nerve, and we need to be at our very, very best and we need England not to be at their best, we can get that shock."

England will be without Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes after scans revealed the former has a left-side abdominal strain and the latter a "left third metatarsal stress reaction". Both will be assessed again when they return to the UK but could be doubts for the Test squad to go to West Indies announced next Tuesday.

Moores, who could be in serious trouble should his side lose to Afghanistan for all the backing he has received this week, is likely to give starts to Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell.

England (likely): Bell, Hales, Taylor, Root, Morgan (capt), Buttler (wkt), Bopara, Jordan, Tredwell, Broad, Anderson.

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