Published: Jun 14, 2018, 09:31 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 14, 2018, 10:18 AM (IST)
India are hosting Afghanistan in the latter’s debut Test, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Stand-in Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane has won the toss and opted to bowl. The match will be telecast live in India on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD 1 in English and Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD 2 in Hindi. There will also be live streaming on Hotstar.
India have included all three specialist openers (Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, and KL Rahul), of whom the first two are opening batting. On a pitch that may offer some movement, India have also left out Kuldeep Yadav in favour of the extra seamer. Afghanistan feature their teenager sensation spinners, Rashid Khan (19) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (17); Mujeeb is making his First-Class debut. Before the Test, Salim Durani, the only Afghanistan-born Test cricketer before today, handed over a memento to Afghan captain Asghar Stanikzai.
India playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav.
Afghanistan playing XI: Asghar Stanikzai (c), Mohammad Shahzad, Javed Ahmadi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Afsar Zazai (wk), Rashid Khan, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar Momand, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
