India v/s Afghanistan Test match: A historic beginning

A blinding rain that lasted hardly five minutes on Wednesday afternoon was enough to wet the M Chinnaswamy Stadium ground and the KSCA 'B' ground where the Afghanistan team was about to start their net session.

The damp and slippery conditions forced the Afghanistan players to retreat to the dressing room, denying them their full net session one final time before the D-Day arrived. The wet practice conditions, though, did not dampen the spirits of the Afghanistan team, which is excited to begin its Test journey against No. 1 Test nation India here on Thursday.

Becoming the 12th nation to play Tests, Afghanistan's has been a story like none before. They have worked hard amidst the ruins that their nation is often facing, courtesy bombings, explosions, shootings, killing innocent lives.

The nation rejoiced in 2013 when they qualified for the 2015 World Cup. Since then, not only have they have upstaged football as the nation's number one sport but also have tried to wipe out the tears from the eyes of their countrymen with their deeds on the cricket field. They have also given their people something to look up to and cheer about amidst the constant political turmoil.

Their captain Asghar Stanikzai, speaking in native language Pashto, while addressing a packed media conference on the eve of their inaugural Test, said: "It is itself history that we are playing the inaugural and historical Test against the No. 1 team in the world. The mood back home is that they are very positive, supportive and looking forward for the best performance. They expect us to perform well because recently Afghanistan performed really well in the T20Is and ODIs, and their expectation will be the same for the Test. We will also try to put out a good performance in the Test match as well. We have worked hard over the last couple of days for this and we will do our best."

It is a common perception that Afghanistan may not be well prepared for the Tests as they are coming here after a successful T20 series against Bangladesh in Dehradun last week. But, the fact is that only five of the 16-member Test squad – captain Stanikzai, Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb ur Rahman – will cross over from Dehradun to Bengaluru. The other 11 have been preparing for the red ball cricket and have the backing of solid performances in their just-concluded second first-class season at home.

Another doubt is their ability to stand up against the fearsome Indian attack, pace and spin in equal measure, as their batsmen are known to play aggressive, fast-paced knocks. Their head coach Phil Simmons sounded confident on the match eve: "You prepare for what you expect. We expected (Ravindra) Jadeja, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Kuldeep (Yadav). We have had our own Kuldeep in young Zahir (Khan), we have bowlers of bowlers of similar ilk and they have been bowling at the batsmen. I can't tell you how to prepare for a particular player. When you practice against a spinner, you learn how to play him. So, we have put that in front of them and I think they have worked hard enough to be put out there, we will see what it brings tomorrow (Thursday)."

India will be playing their 522nd Test since 1932 in Afghanistan's historic beginning. At the outset, Ajinkya Rahane, captaining in place of absent-through-neck-injury to Virat Kohli, and Co. should find it easy against Test cricket's latest entrant. But, they are not taking their opponents lightly.

India will look at doing their bit like they do in any other Test against stronger opponents – focusing on winning the Test. Afghanistan, or England, this Indian team is ready to take on.