Afghanistan’s skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said Sunday the team needs to play more Tests and have just “one good home venue” in India in order to improve in the red-ball format.

Addressing the media on the eve of Afghanistan’s one-off Test against New Zealand, Shahidi said nine games in six years is not enough.

“If we get a lot more chances with the good teams, we will improve.”

“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,” he said.

“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,” he said.

Ranked 12th in the ICC Test rankings, Afghanistan are a force in the white-ball formats, ranked ninth in ODIs and tenth in T20Is.

Apart from hoping to play Test cricket more frequently going forward, Shahidi said he also wants “one good home venue” in India instead of the team having to travel from place to host teams.

For this Test, which starts on Monday, Afghanistan will host New Zealand in Greater Noida, near Delhi. Since becoming a Full Member, their other home Tests have been in Dehradun, Lucknow and Abu Dhabi.

But Shahidi believes that sticking to only one home venue will make them stronger.

He pointed out that while India is considered home, the other nations they have played have had more games in India than Afghanistan has.

“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,” he said.

Following their press conference, Shahidi and his New Zealand counterpart Tim Southee unveiled the trophy for their one-off Test – which will hopefully go off as planned as the weather forecast for the coming week points towards rain.

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