After witnessing Ireland’s impressive performance against Pakistan in their inaugural Test match, Afghanistan is all set to make their debut in the Test arena. The Asian country will play their one-off Test against India at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore starting on 14th June. India has declared the squad that will be taking on Afghanistan with one huge omission.

Keeping the upcoming tour to England in mind, Virat has decided to focus on his form in England and will skip the Test match against the debutants. The captaincy of the Indian Test team has been handed to Ajinkya Rahane. Other than Virat, all other Test specialists are available for this Test match.

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Afghanistan management is excited about the momentous occasion, however, their head coach Phil Simmons has expressed disappointment over Virat Kohli’s unavailability. Simmons was quoted saying in an interview with Sportsarlive, “I think all of us are disappointed because you want to play against Virat Kohli who undoubtedly is the best batsman in the world right now. Naturally, all the players were looking forward to it and are disappointed but at the same time they know that any team BCCI put in front of us we have to work hard. So we are looking forward to it, but a little bit disappointed.”

Indian Test Squad against Afghanistan: 

Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhimaan Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur