Afghanistan captain demands ‘one good home venue’ in India to improve in Test cricket

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi has expressed his wish to have one permanent home venue in India ahead of the one-off Test against New Zealand.

Afghanistan was granted Test status in 2017 after becoming a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

However, due to the political situation in Afghanistan, they cannot play international cricket back home in Afghanistan, consequently playing their home Test matches in Abu Dhabi and different venues in India.

They are set to host New Zealand for a one-off Test in Greater Noida, near Delhi, starting from September 9.

However, Shahidi has claimed that Afghanistan’s performance in red-ball cricket will improve if they have one permanent home venue rather than playing at different venues.

“If you see, India is our home and when we host teams, the other nations have played more cricket than us here,” Shahidi said while addressing the media ahead of the New Zealand Test.

“So hopefully we will get one good venue here in India and we stick with that. If we stick with one venue, it will be more effective for us.”

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The Afghanistan captain also expressed hope that in future they might be able to host test matches in their own country, however, until then he wishes to have a dedicated home venue in India.

“And one more thing, if you see our players, they have a good record in first-class cricket because we play in our own grounds [in Afghanistan]. We know our own conditions very well. So hopefully the time comes in future that teams come to Afghanistan,” he added.

“Hopefully, our cricket board and BCCI give us a good venue in India and we play a lot of cricket at one venue.”

Hashmatullah Shahidi also highlighted the lack of Test matches against top teams as the reason behind Afghanistan’s below-par showing in the longer format.

For the unversed, Afghanistan suffered a bruising introduction to Test cricket in 2018 when they lost to India within two days.

Since then, they have played a total of nine Tests against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ireland.

“In six years, nine games is not, I cannot say it’s a lot,” Shahidi said. “If we get a lot more chances with the good teams, we will improve, and our cricket board is doing that job.”

” I think if we get more chances on a regular basis, we will improve a lot because if we see as a team and as a country, we are brave people and we always accept challenges.”

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