Ajinkya Rahane, who led the no.1 Test side Indian cricket team in Afghanistan’s historic debutant Test match at Bengaluru, says that more and more matches will help Afghanistan to become a proper Test cricket team.
Afghanistan cricket team disappointed in their first ever Test match where they suffered a huge defeat by an innings and 262 runs in just two days. After bundling out the Indian cricket team for 474 runs, Afghanistan team was bowled out twice on the day 2 for just 109 and 103 runs respectively.
Talking about the Afghanistan team in the longer format, Rahane said that it is just the beginning for them and they need to play more Tests to learn the important things for the Test cricket.
Rahane said on that, “For Afghanistan, it’s just the beginning I think. With their bowling, they can do a bit of damage to any other team. It’s still a learning phase for them.”
“More and more they play any opponent, they will learn from them. It was just a beginning, for them. You cannot blame them. They tried their best. After first innings, they were trying to stay on wicket, but it’s still a beginning. It is about playing those matches.”
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Rahane feels that Afghanistan is a good bowling side and to become a decent Test side, the batsmen need to play long innings in addition.
Rahane said, “Test cricket is a lot about attitude and patience and as I mentioned, with that bowling they can damage any team. If 2-3 guys can bat for longer period of time, they can be a decent Test side.”
Rahane further added, “It’s not always about the real match situation but creating those situations in practice also. Thinking and visualising as batsmen about how they are going to play against each opponent. It’s all in the mind because skill wise, every player is similar. If they can get mentally tough and fine tune their technique, it will be good.”
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Rahane has impressed with Afghanistan players’ willingness to learn as they were asking Indian players to learn the Test cricket.
30-year-old claimed, “I have always believed winning and losing is part and parcel. Your effort, attitude and intention should always be about winning but you get to learn plenty off the field as players, like respecting each other. I learnt a lot by playing against Afghanistan.”
“Their players were asking Indian players, their willingness to learn could be seen, they wanted to know what they need to learn to do well in Tests. Winning and losing is not that important, what you learn on and off the field is also very important.”
Rahane has praised the whole bowling unit of Indian cricket team.
He said about the Indian bowlers, “Patience is the key as a bowling unit. For me, it was really easy as Ishant had just played county games and was in good rhythm. Umesh had bowled well in the IPL. These guys are experienced enough to know what to do, so it was really simple.”
“Kuldeep was on the bench and he actually did well in a Test match (earlier) and in the shorter formats. Jadeja and Ashwin you all know how good they are. So for me, it was just standing at slip and concentrating.”
