IND vs AFG, Only Test – Statistical Preview

Afghanistan have ruled the Associate cricket over the last few years as they forcing ICC to make them a Test nation in just five years of becoming an Associate side. Thursday (14th June) will be a historic day for them as they make their Test debut against India, the current No.1 Test side. The Afghans do possess a solid spin attack and could well troublesome big names in the Indian line-up. However, it will be a tough task for Afghanistan to come ahead of India at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore where the hosts have not lost a Test since 2006.

All the key stats, numbers and approaching player milestone ahead of the historic Test match:

0 – The India-Afghanistan Test will be the first Test hosted by India in June and also first across three months between May and July. Out of the 264 Test matches in India, only four have been played between April and August.

Two matches in the 2008 Test series between India and South Africa were played in April while the 2-match Test series between India and New Zealand in 2012 was played in August.

1 – Mujeeb-ur-Rahman will become the first 21st century born cricketer to play Test cricket. Mujeeb will also make his first-class debut in the game which makes him the first player since 2005 to make FC debut in a Test. He will also be the youngest Test cricketer since the start of 2007.

4 – Afghanistan will be the 4th team to face India in their first ever Test match. India were the opponents in the first-ever Test of Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. England made their Test debut against Australia and were part of the first ever Test of South Africa, West Indies, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The 11th country to play Test cricket, Ireland, made their debut against Pakistan in May.

15.05 – Rashid Khan’s bowling average in the four first-class matches he played till date. He took 35 wickets in those matches including four five-wicket hauls and a 4-fer at a strike-rate of 33.6.

99 – Umesh Yadav needs one more wicket to complete 100 wickets in Test cricket. He completed 200 wickets in International cricket during his last outing for India in the Test series against Sri Lanka. Umesh completed 500 wickets in his professional career during the recently concluded IPL.

2010 – Dinesh Karthik will be playing his first Test match since 2010 as his last appearance in this format was against Bangladesh in January 2010. He appeared in 23 Tests between 2004 and 2010 before missing 87 consecutive matches India played in these eight years.

2883 – The India’s stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane needs 117 more runs to complete 3000 runs in Test cricket.

2943 – Ravichandran Ashwin needs 57 more runs to complete 3000 runs in International cricket. Only three Indians and 16 players in overall have scored 3000+ runs and took 500+ wickets in International cricket so far.

4970 – Asghar Stanikzai needs 30 more runs to complete 5000 runs in his professional career. The Indian players Ravindra Jadeja (9976), KL Rahul (8872) and Cheteshwar Pujara (18837) are also closing towards completing 10000, 9000 and 19000 runs respectively in their professional careers.