On Thursday, Afghanistan became the 12 team to play Test cricket when they faced the number 1 side in the format India in Bengaluru. The game didn’t go as expected for the visitors witnessed a forgettable outing. The hosts wrapped up the game within two days as they bundled out the debutants twice in two sessions and won the game by a huge margin of an innings and 262 runs. Afghanistan learned their lessons the hard way, but in this manner, they can only improve after this and are set to play their next Test match in 2019.

Despite the fact that the batsmen failed to impress, Afghanistan’s bowling was pretty impressive, but they also conceded a huge amount of runs. They struggled in the first couple of sessions and then found their groove in the final hour of the day. India lost 5 wickets after Tea and could only score 99 runs in 32 overs which proved that they are set to embrace Test cricket with open arms.4

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Afghans will lock horns with Ireland in February next year. The news was confirmed by the CEO of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) Shafiq Stanikzai while speaking to Sportstar. He said, “We have our plan set till 2019 World Cup. The team is touring Ireland in August, we are playing Asia Cup and then a domestic T20 league. The preparation for World Cup and our next Test (against Ireland in February 2019) is also in place.”

As of now, there are no more details about the game and it might be announced soon once the fixtures of Afghanistan are finalized for the upcoming season. Ireland also lost their first ever Test match against Pakistan last month. But they showed a tough fight than Afghanistan and took the game to five days while threatening the opposition to beat at one stage as well.