*Official* Afghanistan and Bangladesh tour of India 2018

[S.Kennedy]

Mohammad Nabi (Leicestershire), Rashid Khan (Sussex) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Hampshire). Just Twenty20 though.

And pertaining to this test? I've just seen the highlights. Oh dear. The Indian fans didn't need to be so triumphal - surely - whenever a wicket fell (which seemed to be every delivery)?

 

[Midwinter]

That didn't last long.

Everything has to have a beginning. It is just the start of Afghanistan.

 

[NUFAN]

Playing India in India was always going to be a very difficult challenge. I feel bad for the Afghans, I wanted to see better individual performances which most likely would have occurred against almost all other countries.

 

[Shri]

B'desh vs Afg would be better viewing.

 

[Dan]

I mean, it really draws out the massive, massive experience gap in terms of playing long form cricket vis-a-vis Ireland. Even in your first Test ever, even against India in India, being bowled out for 100 at 4rpo is fairly embarrassing.

This is a team that only knows how to play T20 cricket, and who've coasted through the four day stuff in the Intercontinental Cup against teams who are in similar boats. Honestly, you could see exactly how it was going to pan out from Rashid Khan's first two overs alone. They were in no way prepared for a Test match.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Yeah like Bangladesh, Afghanistan have been given Test status based on LO exploits (they are a better LO team than Bangladesh was in 1999-2000) and the massive and passionate support they have for cricket there. Ireland should come up the ranks much faster given their massive FC experience. In fact I see them beating Bangladesh at home now

 

[cnerd123]

Well in Afghanistan's defence, they have played 3 Intercontinental Cups in the last 6 years and won 2 of them and came runner up in the third. They've beaten Ireland in 4 day cricket, and they just had their first season of domestic FC cricket too. So they're in a much better place to start their Test career than Bangladesh


But yea it's quite a bit step up, and they might realise that a heavy overlap of their limited overs stars with their Test team might not go so well.

We should have weighed the fact that Ireland have a team full of seasoned FC vets more heavily in judging how they would go, but let's not forget they got to make their Test debut at home against a vastly inferior team ()

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah I think this massive extrapolation of one Test each to wild conclusions about Ireland being significantly better at this point is ignoring too much a far greater body of evidence that we actually have. Part of Afghanistan's promotion was down to how they performed and how their players looked in limited overs cricket, but it probably wouldn't have been sufficient itself. If they were getting consistently outclassed by Ireland every time in the ICup then I sincerely doubt they would've been promoted, but that's not what happened.

When they played each other last year, Afghanistan smashed them in a similar way to how India just beat them, winning by an innings and 172 runs.
ICC Intercontinental Cup at Greater Noida, Mar 28-30 2017 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

Ireland had a much easier first Test outing -- playing Pakistan at home in conditions Pakistan were very much unsuited to, compared with Afghanistan having to play India in India. Ireland did a much better job of it first up, and it's true they'd have a better chance of beating Bangladesh at home, but there are lots of factors baked into these things which are a bit aside from the respective quality of the two teams. I'm sure in the next few years Ireland will have games they get completely trounced in and Afghanistan will have games that are a lot closer; I think people are jumping the gun slightly and looking to over-explain one-off events.

 

[Shri]

They also played the #1 test team at home first up. Should have worked their way up starting with Bdesh or another bottom ranked team.

 

[harsh.ag]

Wouldn't be surprised if the current Aussie line up fell apart in India for the same scores as the Afghans.

 

[Bahseph]

Yeah don't think this was unexpected at all. India in India are as close to unstoppable as you can get. To me you just have to give these guys some time. And hopefully they learn how to bat in non LO stuff.

 

[Migara]

Afghans against any other team on a turning deck is serious proposition. Few years earlier when Hamid Hasan, Zapoor Zadran and Dawlat Zadran were running hot, they were daunting on a seaming deck. Haven't seen a side change their bowling strengths so much in such a short period.

 

[Black_Warrior]

When they played each other last year, Afghanistan smashed them in a similar way to how India just beat them, winning by an innings and 172 runs.
ICC Intercontinental Cup at Greater Noida, Mar 28-30 2017 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

Ireland had a much easier first Test outing -- playing Pakistan at home in conditions Pakistan were very much unsuited to, compared with Afghanistan having to play India in India. Ireland did a much better job of it first up, and it's true they'd have a better chance of beating Bangladesh at home, but there are lots of factors baked into these things which are a bit aside from the respective quality of the two teams. I'm sure in the next few years Ireland will have games they get completely trounced in and Afghanistan will have games that are a lot closer; I think people are jumping the gun slightly and looking to over-explain one-off events.

Oh absolutely. I don't think anyone has suggested otherwise. Ireland had more FC experience than Pakistan and they played at home. They will get similarly trounced in Asia where they've never played before.

I don't think anyone here has been too hard on Afghanistan other than the usual suspects. They've got quality players and will improve over time. The problem they might face is that the cricket structure has changed a great deal since Bangladesh's early days. Between 2000-2005, Bangladesh had already played in England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies. The cricket structure now makes that quite difficult. Afghanistan will find it difficult to get games as consistently as Bangladesh did in their early days and I can see ACB just preferring to go for LO games like ZC.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Afghans against any other team on a turning deck is serious proposition. Few years earlier when Hamid Hasan, Zapoor Zadran and Dawlat Zadran were running hot, they were daunting on a seaming deck. Haven't seen a side change their bowling strengths so much in such a short period.

There's a major difference between bowling spin in LO games and bowling in Tests. I made a thread about this some time back. The best Test spinners today don't play LOs and vice versa. Afghanistan have great LO spinners. There's still a long way to go in Tests.

 

[Bahseph]

I'm willing to take a punt on Rashid to become a good long format bowler. Aslong as he focuses on his leggie and not constant variations he should be fine. I'm more apprenhsive about Mujeeb. More in the Narine, Mendis mould for me. I'm happy to be proven wrong though.

 

[jimmy101]

I think Afghan will thrive eventually with both bat & ball in Tests once the players get some experience under their belts. To suggest their bowlers are only any good in ODIs is a bit harsh. After all we have only one match to analyse which was, as Bahseph said, arguably the toughest assignment in world cricket.

 

[Daemon]

The overwhelming issue lies with the batting. It's very, very poor atm, across all formats.

Bowling wise they'll find their way. Despite the spinners bowling so poorly they still managed to dismiss India for <500.

 

[cnerd123]

It's funny but every upcoming nation historically has found it easier to produce a functional batting lineup, with a world class bowling lineup being the hardest thing to develop. Afghanistan actually have it backwards. Don't think we've ever seen that before.

 

[Cow]

Another tough home series for India.

Trying to lock in there no.1 test spot before they have their trousers pulled down come August.

 

[Migara]

There's a major difference between bowling spin in LO games and bowling in Tests. I made a thread about this some time back. The best Test spinners today don't play LOs and vice versa. Afghanistan have great LO spinners. There's still a long way to go in Tests.

However, great test spinners were great LO spinners as well. The vice visa is not always true, but it's hard to name an ATG LO spinner who is not great in tests.

(I know, you would name Bradd Hogg, but if he was born in NZ / SAF or ENG, we are looking at a genuine wicket taker with 300+ scalps. He was just unlucky Warne was around. )