Time is right for Afghanistan's long walk from promise to silverware

It's been ten and a half years since Shapoor Zadran ran across the ground in Dunedin, hands and bat aloft in pure delirium. Afghanistan had just beaten Scotland for their first win on the grandest stage - an ODI World Cup, a surreal moment for a nation that had made its way to the showpiece event against gargantuan odds. But a decade is a long time. Even Afghanistan will attest to it, having travelled far from being the poster boys of a feel-good story.

They have grown with time, shedding their tag of perennial heart-winners and putting themselves in serious conversations in the format. Rashid Khan's IPL arrival in 2017 barely caused a ripple in the league's landscape. Seven years on, no bowler has more T20 wickets and he sits in the leadership group of every team he represents. And it's not just Rashid anymore. A lot of others have become bonafide stars, their demand sky-high before every auction and draft.

But the highs of franchise cricket have brought with them harsher spotlight and sterner questions: why can't a collection of such performers translate success together in multi-team events at the international level? Afghanistan have