Afghanistan to play one-off Test against Australia from December 7
Afghanistan Cricket Board interim chief executive Nazim Dar Abdulrahimzai confirmed yesterday that Afghanistan will be playing their first-ever Test match against Australia in Australia, starting from December 7 at Perth.
The Test match was initially scheduled to take place from November 21 to 25, as per the ICC‘s Future tours and programmes, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abdulrahimzai also added that they sent in a request to play a normal, day Test match instead of playing under lights, which, they were convinced, would be agreed upon by Cricket Australia.
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Abdulrahimzai said, ”We are going to play the one-off Test series against Australia in December. We have requested them to play a normal Test match instead of the day-night Test match, as we have not played a D/N Test earlier. Our camp will be based in UAE ahead of the Australia tour, where we are expected to play a practice game before the lone Test.”
Abdulrahimzai added that the Afghanistan Cricket team will be completing their 14-day quarantine period before the Test match.
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Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s newly-appointed director of cricketer Raees Ahmadzai said that the board would have a clear picture about whether the Test would be played under lights or not by Saturday. ”We will be forming the team for a good match against Australia. After Saturday [August 29], we will be in a good position to know (about whether it would be a D/N Test or not).”
So far, Afghanistan have played four Tests. Their first Test was against India and their first Test win came against Ireland. Overall, they have won and lost two Test matches each.