Before Afghanistan makes their test debut at the Chinnaswamy stadium, their captain Asghar Stanikzai believes that the his world-class spinners will pose a serious challenge for Indian batting line-up in the historic one-off Test in Bengaluru from June 14. The Indian team will be without the services of their regular skipper Virat Kohli, who opted for a county for the preparation of England tour.
“With or without Kohli, India are a top team and even stronger at home. Kohli is a very big player and we would have enjoyed playing against him,” Stanikzai told PTI as reported by Times of India.
“Irrespective of who is playing, everyone knows how tough it is to face India in India. It will be a great learning experience but we are surely not overawed by the challenge. We will be playing to win. We have world-class spinners in our team and they can trouble India.”
Afghanistan are currently training in Greater Noida and later this weak, they will leave for Dehradun ahead of the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh early next month.
Stanikzai believes adapting to the five day game will not be a big challenge fir his team.
“We would like to learn from their players and they can learn from ours. Yes we are playing our first Test but we are going into the game with enough first-class experience.
“We play about 10 four-day games in a year and have won the ICC Intercontinental Cup twice. Tests will be different obviously but I would not say that there is a huge difference,” said the veteran of 86 ODIs and 51 T20s,” he said.
The Afghan skipper believes their spin department lead by Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Zadran to be their main weapon of attack against the Indians. Zahir Khan and Qais Ahmed will also be the two other spinners to look forward.
