IND vs AFG 2018: Afghanistan Becomes the Fourth Team to Make Test Debut against India

The ongoing Test in Bengaluru between India and Afghanistan holds a lot of importance for the latter. It will be their first-ever Test match.

Just a decade ago, Afghanistan had made it to division five of the World Cricket League which was five stages below World Cup qualification. But a decade later, they have become one of the most exciting cricketing teams on the planet.

Just four years after gaining the ODI status in 2011, they made it to their maiden 50-over World Cup in 2015 – a remarkable success for a war-ravaged nation which started playing the game in refugee sites.

The fairy-tale just kept on getting better, and in 2017 they earned their Test status.

Early this year, they defeated two-time world champions, Windies in the final of the World Cup Qualifiers to make it to the main event. Recently, they whitewashed Bangladesh 3-0 in a T20I series. The war-ravaged nation is now gearing up for the greatest moment in its short yet impressive cricket history.

Well, the Test holds big importance for India too. As soon as they took the field on Thursday, it was the fourth instance of India taking on a country in their first-ever Test.

India had played against Pakistan (1952), Zimbabwe (1992) and Bangladesh (2000) in their first-ever Test. Since India played their first Test, only Sri Lanka and Ireland haven’t played their maiden Test against them.

Meanwhile, India’s stand-in skipper, Ajinkya Rahane has said the team would not take the Afghans lightly.

“We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly. They have a decent team…bowlers (are good),” he said.

“As a Test team, we cannot take anyone for granted because cricket is a funny game. We want to go out there and be ruthless. Yes, we respect them as our opponents, but it’s important for us to go out there and give more than our 100. We just need to be ruthless,” Rahane added.