Australia to host Afghanistan for historic one-off Test in 2021

Australia will host Afghanistan for a solitary Test match in November next year as per the agreement between Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and Cricket Australia (CA). The ACB confirmed the big development on Saturday. The historic Test was originally scheduled to be held in November 2020 but had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The next year’s Test will be the first-ever between Australia and Afghanistan. It will be also Afghanistan’s first Test out of the subcontinent. Afghanistan were awarded the Test status by the ICC in 2017 and have played four Tests so far. Their record in the longest format of the game so far has been really promising as well as impressive. Afghanistan played their first-ever Test in 2018 when India hosted them for the historic occasion.

The game turned out to be a one-way traffic as India thrashed them by an innings and 262 runs. But Afghanistan bounced back in style in their following Test which was against Ireland. They beat Ireland to achieve their first victory in the format in their only second appearance, becoming only the third team after England and Pakistan to do so.

In their following Test, they beat Bangladesh by 224 runs in their own backyard before losing to West Indies in the Lucknow Test.

🇦🇺 v 🇦🇫
📍 Australia

Afghanistan have confirmed that their one-off Test with Australia has been rescheduled for November 2021. pic.twitter.com/neCuU6rCtn

— ICC (@ICC) December 19, 2020

Australia busy during home season

While the one-off Test against Afghanistan had to be postponed, Australia are still busy during their ongoing home season. Currently, they are involved in a four-match Test series with India. Both the teams recently played three ODIs and as many T20Is. Australia won the ODIs before India won the T20I series.

Talking about the Tests, Australia thrashed India by eight wickets in the first Test to take the lead in the Border-Gavaskar series. The Test ended well inside three days after the hosts bowled out the visitors for 36, their lowest total in Tests.

Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins made the difference with the ball for the hosts, taking five and four wickets respectively. Set a target of 90, Australia chased down the total in 21 overs with Joe Burns’ unbeaten knock of 51 leading the charge.