I think the decision to bat first was key to the game in Bristol. My belief is we should have bowled on that track because we chased with success against Pakistan on a similar wicket at the same ground in the warm-up game.
After batting first, we lost a couple of early wickets in the top-order and struggled to create partnerships throughout.
Building partnerships has always been crucial for our team, so to lose a couple of wickets early was a blow.
It's difficult to be too critical because Australia are a strong side and world champions. They have a very strong bowling attack and have now added David Warner and Steve Smith to their team too.
For me, they are the second favourites to win the competition.
Against a respected side, Afghanistan didn't play bad cricket.
The main issue was the collapse of the batting. There was a weakness both against fast bowling and spin.
A couple of good batsmen didn't totally click at the County Ground. The top-order collapsed pretty quickly, as did the middle-order.
There was only one partnership for Afghanistan throughout the innings between the captain Gulbadin Naib and Najibullah Zadran, which wasn't enough in the end.
Scoring 207 was below par on this wicket. It wasn't really seaming or turning that much, so I think 260 or 270 would have been about right in the circumstances.
In terms of positives, the way we bowled wasn't bad. Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman both bowled well, but it was a case of the total not being enough for them to defend it.
There wasn't that much support today for the spinners, we didn't really see much turn or grip, so maybe against another team and on another wicket, Rashid can make the difference.
I hope that in the next few games, there will be slightly more support from the pitch for the spinners.
The wickets at the moment are very flat and very dry. We have quality spinners who can make the breakthrough at any time.
It's a tournament and all the bowlers will have to make an impact.
Of the seamers, Hamid Hassan appears to be in a good rhythm while Aftab Alam is a good medium-pacer. I hope they will perform very well in the next game.
I knew from the start that we were facing some very strong sides in these conditions. Playing England, Australia and South Africa here is not easy.
But there are games Afghanistan can target to pick up wins.
Recently in the Asia Cup, we beat our next opponents, Sri Lanka. After that, morale and confidence should be high for Tuesday's game among the boys. I think they can beat them again.
For me, the key to the game will be the bowling, as both sides are pretty similar in terms of level.
— Courtesy: © ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2018