Captain Asghar Stanikzai has asserted that the recent clean sweep victory has lifted the morale of his team ahead of the one-off Test against India.
In an exclusive interview, Rahane spoke about the upcoming challenges, Afghanistan's maiden Test, India's tour of England and also his stint as Rajasthan Royals captain in the Indian Premier League 2018.
It has been an on and off season this year for Rahane, but since being appointed as Rajasthan Royal's new skipper, the 30-year old has been in the limelight ever since then.
The 30-year old pacer said it is heart-breaking that tragic incidents keep taking place in the war-torn nation but as professional cricketers, they have no option but to move on.
Rashid Khan says he is prepared for the "test of patience" that awaits him in Afghanistan's five-day debut against India, where all he wants is to keep the jangling nerves at bay.
Come June 14, the passionate Afghan players will find out that the five-day version of the game is a different beast altogether but Bangladesh skipper, Shakib, has backed them to do well.
The BCCI named Karthik as Saha's replacement for Afghanistan's debut Test match to be held in Bengaluru starting June 14.
The scheduling has left Afghanistan with no choice other than to have joint preparations for the Test and T20s.
Karthik had last played a Test match way back in 2010 against Bangladesh but has had a prolific first-class record with 27 hundreds and over 9000 runs.
Talking about Rashid, the Afghanistan national team coach spoke about the leg-break bowler's maturity beyond years.
Saha's batting form in the IPL was woeful with 122 runs in 10 innings at an average of 15.25 but he admitted it was way below his expectation.
If the Bengal keeper fails to recover in time for the one-off historic Test, Dinesh Karthik or Parthiv Patel might get a look in.
Despite possessing an impressive record in limited overs cricket, Rohit has failed to justify his talent in the longer format of the game, scoring 1479 runs in the 25 Tests he has played.
Rahane believes that being overlooked for the limited-overs leg of the upcoming UK tour will give him more time to prepare for the big-ticket five-match Test series against England.
Zadran was also ruled out of his side's three Twenty20 Internationals against Bangladesh, starting June 3 in Dehradun.
Afghanistan will make their much-awaited Test debut on June 14 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and Stankizai said the aim is to give a good fight to India, who will be without their regular skipper Virat Kohli.
Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar on Friday supported Virat Kohli's decision to prefer County stint over next month's one-off Test against Afghanistan to prepare for the challenging England tour.
Former India coach Gary Kirsten said Virat Kohli's insatiable hunger for improvement makes him a great player.
Kohli will be playing for Surrey during the month of June and will miss the historic occasion as India plays host to the war-ravaged nation.
With Virat Kohli on his way to play County, Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Test side in a one-off historic Test match against Afghanistan.
Top News
Latest News
