14th June 2018 is a red-letter day for Afghanistan Cricket, for the first time they are taking the field in white clothes. Afghanistan progress in International Cricket has been amazing so far. They have come a long way and earned the Test status.
Before the toss, all the players from Afghan team got their test caps from ACB. One can see the happiness and that proud feeling on the face of every Afghan player as they were receiving the bright red caps. The Former Indian Test Cricketer Salim Durani was there at the toss with the two captains. Salim Durani was born in Kabul and represented India in Test matches. Durani presented a memento to Afghan Captain Asghar Stanikzai. Dignitaries of both nations were present to witnessed the historic occasion. Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore read out a soulful message from our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shir. Narendra Modi. The Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani also sent a message, where he congratulates both the teams for this historic Test Match. Cricket played a crucial part to bridge the gap between these two nations. It is a proud moment for the Indian team as well. India has helped Afghanistan in many ways. Afghanistan plays their home matches in Indian soil. BCCI's role in the development of Afghan Cricket is immense.
Afghanistan is a force to reckon with in white ball cricket, especially in T20 format. But when it comes to the longer format of the game, they don't have that much of an experience. They haven't played too many First-Class matches. It will be interesting to see how they will cope up to the pressure of Test Match cricket in next five days against the world no.1 Test team.
After winning the toss India started brilliantly with the bat. Both the openers Vijay and Dhawan looked in great touch. Specially Dhawan played a blistering knock. He became the first Indian player to score a hundred before lunch on the first day of a Test Match before he got out to Ahmadzai. Dhawan particularly took a liking to his Sunriser's teammate Rashid Khan and unsettled him straight away. The tormentor in the shortest format of the game Rashid khan already finding red ball cricket a different cattle of fish. Dhawan Should have scored a double hundred, played a lazy shot outside the off-stump and nicked out to first slip. On the other hand, Vijay took is time early on his inning but came to his own as the day progressed. Like his opening partner, Vijay also scored a fine hundred. It will give Vijay, a much-needed confidence before the all-important England Tour. Afghanistan not bowled consistently enough in the right areas, gave away too many easy balls to score in the first two sessions of the match.
Patience is a key component in Test Match cricket and Afghan bowlers learned that quickly. They bowled according to the plan and put Indian batters under pressure in the third session. A couple of rain breaks didn’t help the cause of Indian batters either as they lost 5 wickets for just 54 runs in the last session of play. Wafadar and Ahmadzai bowled really well right throughout the day. Making he come back to the Indian side after 87 test matches, Dinesh Karthik didn’t trouble the scorer as he, unfortunately, got run out for just 4 runs. Batting at No.3 KL Rahul scored an elegant fifty as well. India will definitely look to score as many runs as they can in the first innings and put Afghanistan under pressure on day three and four. This pitch will turn more as the game progresses. It won’t be easy for these inexperienced Afghanistan batsmen to survive on this pitch later on in this match
