Afghanistan captain Shahidi said his team is ready for Glenn Maxwell and the entire Australian team in Lahore. (Reuters)Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and his team would have taken a while to recover from the Glenn Maxwell hurricane that wreaked havoc over them at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai during the 2023 ODI World Cup.Chasing 292, Australia were staring at a certain defeat after losing seven wickets with less than 100 on the board, but then, Maxwell played one of the greatest knocks in the history of one-day cricket to steer his side into an unbelievable win, and days later, the Aussies won a record-extending sixth World Cup. Dropped on 33, Maxwell finished unbeaten on 201 after battling cramps and unleashing an extraordinary range of shots.Though the Afghans exacted their revenge with a win that shut Australia’s knockout chances at the T20 World Cup last year, Shahidi was posed the Glenn Maxwell question ahead of a virtual knockout clash between Afghanistan and Australia at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Friday.“You think we will come only to play with Maxwell? Do you think it will be like that? We have planned for entire Australian team, and I know that he (Maxwell) played really well in the 2023 World Cup, but that’s part of the history,” a miffed Shahidi said at the pre-match press conference on Thursday.“After that, we beat them in T20 World Cup, and we think about all opposition team. We are not coming to the ground to plan on individual players. We will try our best to come with the planning, and we are not playing only Maxwell – we are playing Australia,” Shahidi said.The victory against England sparked wild celebrations in the Afghan capital of Kabul where fireworks were lit and streets were filled with jubilant fans. Should Afghanistan get past Australia, it will pave the way for their second successive entry into the semifinals of an ICC event in less than a year, following their inspiring run in the T20 World Cup in the Americas in 2024.“I think it will be a good game for cricket, and our focus will be to keep things simple and don’t worry much about playing semifinal. We will try to do our basics well, and we will try to come to the ground with good planning,” Shahidi said. “Afghan people always cheer for us, as you saw (against England) in the ground. There were a lot of our Afghan people. So, their support is always with us, and wherever we go, they support us,” Shahidi added.– With PTI inputs© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd