Afghanistan to play maiden Day-Night Test against Australia in Perth

Prior to India’s four-match Test series against Australia, Afghanistan are scheduled to play a Day-Night Test versus the Aussies, starting November 21 in Perth. The Afghans have played four Tests thus far, but for the maiden time they will be playing with the pink-ball under the lights. The Asian country got Test status in 2017 and their last match was against the West Indies in Lucknow.

The decision to play a solitary Test was taken after deliberation between both the boards. Lutfullah Stanikzai, the chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) sounded pretty optimistic that the tour will take place if the Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t play spoilsport.

“Australia is a strong side in world cricket. However, our team will also be well prepared. The match will provide a great experience to them,” Stanikzai was quoted as saying in Sportstar. Both the cricket boards are of the opinion that the day-night Test will be a good advertisement for the sport in the testing times.

It’s early stages for Afghanistan in Tests: Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan, who captained Afghanistan to a 224-run victory against Bangladesh last year in Chattogram, understands the requirements in the Australia tour. The 21-year-old reckons that fast bowlers will play a role there and spinners will have to work hard for wickets. Rashid said that the game would be a great confidence booster for the team.

“It’s early stages for us in Tests, we will be playing Australia in its home next year. In such conditions, you won’t get favourable wickets. You will get wickets which will hardly help the spinners, so we need to find out a few fast bowlers, who can bowl 130-plus. Once we have that, it will be easy for us to get wickets,” Rashid said.

“They will definitely take responsibility and that’s what we are trying to get. In the series against Australia, you need to have pacers who can bowl at 130-plus,” he added.

Out of the four Tests, the Afghans have lost two and won as many. Apart from Bangladesh, they also have beaten Ireland by seven wickets at Dehradun in March 2019. They made their Test debut against India back in June 2018 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.