Sport

Shahidi calls for more Test matches and one home venue for Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s captain Shahidi believes that sticking to only one home venue will make them stronger

Published

4 weeks ago

September 8, 2024

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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Third-place match will be played on Sunday, October 6 in Tashkent.

The final will follow later in the day.

The tournament’s most successful team so far has been Brazil with Marcel the top scorer.

There have been 341 goals scored in 48 matches, averaging 7.1 goals per match up to the quarterfinals. Leading the pack is Brazil’s Marcel, who has scored an impressive 10 goals.

Close behind is Argentina’s Alan Brandi with 7 goals.

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Francis Lokoka, Abdessamad Mohammed and Raphael Reynaud discuss France beating Paraguay and reaching the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024 quarter-finals.

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Fellow teammate Francis Lokoka added: “It is absolutely amazing. If somebody had told me this was going to happen, I would not have believed them in my wildest dreams.”

“It is unbelievable,” said coach Raphael Reynaud. “When we came here our aim was to make it through the group stage. But we are competitors so once we’d achieved that, we told ourselves that anything was possible. We believe that we can go far in this tournament.

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Kazakhstan meanwhile take on Argentina on Monday night, after eliminating reigning world and European champions Portugal. Argentina defeated Croatia in their round of 16 match.

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Semis will get underway on Wednesday, October 2, when Ukraine face Brazil in Tashkent.

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Afghanistan to play three ODIs against Bangladesh in November

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The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Sunday confirmed that it will host Bangladesh for a series of three One Day International (ODI) matches from November 06 – 11 in the United Arab Emirates.

The three-match ODI series will begin on the 6th of November, with the 2nd and 3rd ODIs scheduled to be played on the 9th and 11th of November, respectively. The exact venue is yet to be finalized.

These three ODIs, along with three T20Is and two Tests, were originally part of Afghanistan’s Future Tour Program (FTP) and scheduled for July-August this year. However, the series was postponed due to extreme heat in the UAE and India, where ACB usually hosts its home events, ACB said in a statement.

Following extensive discussions, both boards have agreed to proceed with just the ODI leg, which will be crucial in both teams' preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy which is set to take place in Pakistan in February next year, the statement said.

Afghanistan recently secured a historic 2-1 series victory over South Africa and are set to tour Zimbabwe in December for an all-format series against the home side.