Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said that they are taking inspiration from their crushing Test victory against Bangladesh when they take on the same side at their backyard in the one-off Test, starting on June 14.
Afghanistan, who have played six Test matches so far after receiving Test status in 2018, defeated Bangladesh by 224 runs in 2019, and though they haven't played a lot since then, their skipper feels they have a strong domestic structure in place to make sure they perform whenever there is an opportunity for them to play Test cricket.
"It inspires us because we played only one Test here and we won that, so that gives us a lot of confidence, and we will try to start it from there for the next game and our aim will be to be positive and take confidence from the last game," Shahidi told reporters on Monday. "Expectation is high we are here to play good cricket and want to win the game.
"Yes, we had a lot of gaps because last time we played against Zimbabwe two years ago. We play domestic first-class games and lot of players are involved in that. We have good first-class domestic cricket. We have eight to nine first-class games and the cricket board is trying to increase it because if you are playing the longer format in domestic cricket it will help you improve your game in Test cricket," he said.
Shahidi admitted that they will miss the service of Rashid Khan but added that they have wrist spinners like Izharulhaq Naweed (leg spinner) and Jahir Khan in their attack to challenge the counterparts.
Rashid, who was rested due to back pain, was the wrecker in chief in the last Test between the two countries picking 11 wickets to help them earn the historic win over the hosts in Chattogram in 2019.
"It will be challenging we all know that Rashid is one of the main bowlers in our team. He did very well in the past in Test matches. Still we have other wrist spin options and they will perform well," said Shahidi.
"I think Shakib is also rested and Rashid is also rested as I mentioned we have good quality players to win the game for us" he said adding that Izharulhaq need to come out from his T20 mindset to do well in the longer version.
"He (Izharulhaq) played good cricket, he played Big Bash and T20 cricket is different he did very good in the past in age-group cricket also and so he will be one of the biggest stars in future for Afghanistan," he said.
