Mumbai, June 12: India and Afghanistan will lock horns in a historic Test match, in Bengaluru, starting from June 14. The one-off Test match serves a great opportunity for the Afghanistan team to showcase their talent on a bigger platform. Fresh from a series sweep against Bangladesh, last week, the Asghar Stanikzai-led team will be looking forward to leaving no stone unturned when they face the second-choice Indian squad in Bengaluru.

The Indian team, which will be led by Ajinkya Rahane in absence of the captain Virat Kohli, was seen practising in the nets in what seemed to be a gruelling practise session. Amongst other players present at the practise session, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was also seen honing his bowling skills ahead of the crucial Test match.

See Pictures of Indian Team’s Practise Session ahead of their match against Afghanistan:

The Indian spinners in the squad – R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav – might be feeling the heat going into the match. Afghanistan skipper Asghar Stanikzai had recently said that we have better spinners in our team than India has. Ashwin and Jadeja, who have remained on the sidelines for most the past year, would be itching to make a statement in the Test match.

The test match between India and Afghanistan has seen a lot of comments made by the Afghan players. A lot had been said about Kohli’s absenteeism from the Indian team for the Test match. However, the Afghan skipper was quick to downplay his omission saying that Afghanistan is looking forward to competing with team India and not just Virat Kohli.

Afghanistan Test Squad:

Asghar Stanikzai (c), Javed Ahmadi, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Nasir Jamal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Amir Hamza, Sayed Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar, and Zahir Khan.

Updated India Test Squad:

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, and Shardul Thakur.

The Afghanistan team has included four spinners in their squad, despite knowing fully well that the Indian batsmen are the best players of spin. The Indian team cannot afford any slip-up in the match, which has already grabbed a lot of eyeballs already.

It will be a good practise match for the Indians before they head to England for a long tour. However, Afghanistan would love to go all guns blazing and ensure that it happens to be more than a practise match for the Indian team. Stay tuned with LatestLY for all the latest updates on India-Afghanistan Test Match 2018.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2018 06:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).