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Hashmatullah Shahidi hopes to play Test cricket more often in the future, but he also wants “one good home venue” in India rather than always moving as they are now unable to play international cricket in their native Afghanistan.
A one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand will begin on Monday in Greater Noida, close to Delhi. Since becoming a Full Member, they have also conducted home tests in Abu Dhabi, Lucknow, and Dehradun. They will become a more formidable and successful team in red-ball cricket if they remain at their current home ground, according to Shahidi.
“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 the day before the 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.
“And one more thing, if you see our players, they have good record in first-class cricket because we play in our own grounds [in Afghanistan]. We know our own conditions very well. So hopefully that time comes in future that teams come to Afghanistan. Then our average will be even higher than what it is right now and hopefully our cricket board and BCCI give a good venue for us in India and we play a lot of cricket in one venue.”
In their six years at this level, Afghanistan has only played nine Tests; of the 22 Tests they are scheduled to play in the current FTP, which runs from 2023 to 2027, just a small number are against the best teams. Afghanistan has played against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Ireland so far in the current FTP. Test matches against Zimbabwe (six), Ireland (three), Australia (one), India (one), and the West Indies (one) are planned following the New Zealand match.
“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. Like with New Zealand, if you see their history of Test cricket and where they are in the rankings right now, it’s a good opportunity for us and hopefully our cricket board will try harder to give us opportunities against good teams in the future. I think if we get more chances on 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.
“If we get three- or four-match series in one time, I think it will be very good for us as a side. If you look at our past, we get one Test match and we start preparing for that ten days before. So it’s not easy to come to red-ball cricket. Playing matches will make us even better on judging the ball and playing good cricket in red-ball format, compared to playing in the nets. So if we play three-four games back to back I think it will be better.”