Afghanistan will face New Zealand for the one-off Test match which is scheduled to take place at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida. The clash will start from September 9 and this is the first time that both teams are playing a Test match against each other.
Both New Zealand and Afghanistan squads have arrived in Greater Noida for the clash. Afghanistan veteran batter Rahmat Shah said that the hosts (Afghanistan) hold the edge over WTC winners New Zealand in the upcoming Test matches because their past experience on Indian soil will help them in the upcoming Test.
Shah was a part of the Afghanistan sides that played Tests in Bengaluru (2018 vs India), in Dehradun (2019 vs Ireland) and in Lucknow (2019 vs West Indies).
“Our past experience in India will help us. We had our home ground in Noida and in Lucknow, and we have played a lot of matches here and done a lot of camps here. We are also accustomed with the weather and pitch conditions of India, so we certainly have an edge,” Shah told Cricbuzz.
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Shah, the leading run-scorer for Afghanistan in Tests and ODIs, wanted to give the Kiwis, the inaugural WTC champions, a tough time.
“We will try to give them a tough time. They have won the ICC Test Championship and we tried to have the best of preparations and we are looking forward to the challenge that is lying ahead,” he said.
The 31-year-old top-order batter said he has made some technical changes to adapt to the conditions here.
“I just tried to concentrate more and practice more (to make technical adjustments). Earlier my shoulder used to get open and I tried to make it sideways and tried to straighter my alignment. When the fast bowler used to come, I used to move towards off stump a bit more and as a result I used to fall down. I used to play my shot through my wrist but now I am trying to take my feet and just worked hard to get it into my batting template,” Shah added.
New Zealand are the inaugural World Test Championship final winners where they defeated Virat Kohli-led India by eight wickets at Southampton.
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