Afghanistan Cricket Team

The two teams will now come face to face in the second ODI on Wednesday at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium

Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, on Saturday, credited India head coach Gautam Gambhir for his technical inputs after smashing a 51-ball 102 against the hosts in the opening ODI here. While Gurbaz lit up the HPCA Stadium here with his explosive stroke play around the wickets to hammer eight sixes and as many fours for a ninth ODI ton, no other Afghanistan batter could provide any resistance against the Indian bowlers as they were bowled out for 194. Gurbaz revealed that a chat with Gambhir, with whom he has shared the dressing room during his KKR days, proved to be fruitful. It happened after Afghanistan's innings and 300 run defeat in the one-off game at Mullanpur. "After the Test match, I had a very good conversation with Gautam Gambhir sir (and) that discussion really helped me," Gurbaz told the broadcaster. "I worked on those ideas in the nets, and I'm very grateful for the guidance. When the Test match ended, I told him that I wanted to improve my shot selection," he ...

As part of the preparations, India are planning to strengthen their bench strength as they will field two debutants in Dharamsala in the form of spinner Harsh Dubey and pacer Gurnoor Brar

According to the weather report, the first ODI between India and Afghanistan in Dharamsala could be heavily affected by rain, with the probability of precipitation highest in the early afternoon

JioHotstar in India will stream the India vs Afghanistan first ODI match through its app and website

The ODI series vs Afghanistan will be crucial for the home side, who are still going through the process of transition with skipper Gill at the helm

Manav is now the tenth Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut

India's win by an innings and 300 runs against Afghanistan is now their biggest victory in Test cricket by margin of runs

After declaring their first innings at a commanding 564/8, India struck regularly with the ball, with Suthar claiming three wickets and Prasidh Krishna adding two

Saleem, who went wicketless in his Test debut against Sri Lanka, performed with brilliant consistency and added big names like Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan to his wicket column in Mullanpur

Sai Sudharsan and Rishabh Pant also dominated the Afghanistan bowling attack with brilliant half-centuries

Gambhir said teams should have every opportunity to complete matches rather than see valuable playing time lost to bad light

The last time the two sides played a Test match against each other was back in 2018, when India secured a mammoth innings-and-262-run win over Afghanistan

Battling demons of a horrendous home Test run in the not so distant past but nevertheless a formidable unit, India are pitted against a plucky Afghanistan in a one-off Test here that might help the hosts figure out a balanced combination, starting Saturday. In 2018, Afghanistan lost 10 wickets in a session between lunch and tea on the second day of the Test against India. The next 10 fell by the wayside between tea and end of day's play which also was end of the game. In 2026, Hashmatullah Shahidi would want his team to at least stretch the home side which is going through a tough transition phase and will be in experimental mode during this game trying different combinations. However, the Indians would not have forgotten the 0-2 drubbing handed by a meticulously prepared South Africa last year and would do well to not take the opposition lightly despite the gulf in experience. Sai or Dev? That's the question ==================== A stable No.3 and Ravindra Jadeja's potential succ

Rashid Khan has done extremely well in the six Tests that he has played but he donning the whites again for Afghanistan is something between him and the national selectors, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said ahead of one-off game against India. Shahidi, by far Afghanistan's best Test batter with two double hundreds and a healthy average of 48 plus, also spoke about how their nation needs to play more red ball games to measure up with the best. "Rashid has done well in the Tests (45 wickets in 6 Tests) that he has played. Personally I haven't spoken to Rashid about whether he would play Test again or not. He had discussions with selectors and I don't want to talk about that," Shahidi said at a press conference on Thursday. However, he did concede that playing two Tests a year on an average has been the bane for Afghan cricket since they made their debut in 2018. "We played India in 2018. We have more experience now but we need to play more to build our Test team. When it comes to ...

Kohli's absence is expected to reduce the spotlight on the Afghanistan series, given his enduring popularity among cricket fans across the world.

Hardik has not played 50-over cricket for the Men in Blue in almost a year, as his last appearance in the format came in 2025 during the ICC Champions Trophy

The current WTC regulations do not allow one-off Test matches to be part of the WTC. Every WTC contest must be played as a series of at least two Tests

The net bowlers will assist the Indian squad during preparations for only the second-ever Test between India and Afghanistan

Rajasthan-based Manav Suthar has also received his maiden national call-up for the one-off Test between India and Afghanistan, starting June 6