I Hope We Play Our First Test Against India: Mohammad Nabi
Jun 24, 2017 at 12:48 PM
With Afghanistan gaining the Test status, their star allrounder Mohammad Nabi has expressed his desire of playing against world number one Test side India in his first Test match.
Earlier this week, Afghanistan along with Ireland were confirmed as Full Members of the International Cricket Council after a unanimous vote at the ICC Full Council meeting in London. This is a huge step for a country which was awarded the ODI status in 2011. But since gaining the ODI status, Afghanistan never looked back and are now reaping the reward for it. Afghanistan qualified for their first Cricket World Cup in 2015 and made an immediate impact by winning the first game of the tournament against Scotland. In the following year, they made it to the World T20 and defeated eventual winners West Indies to showcase their potentials. Recently, they drew an ODI series in West Indies.
Getting the Test status is a remarkable achievement for a team in which most players learned to play while growing up in refugee camps in bordering Pakistan and Nabi said that becoming a full member of the ICC has been a dream come for true.
“This is a dream we have been chasing for years now. And today, we are a Test playing nation. I hope we play our first Test against India. That’s one dream all of us have. It would have been good if we could take on India in Greater Noida,” the former Afghanistan skipper was quoted as saying by Sports Starlite.
Nabi, who played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in this year’s Indian Premier League, also thanked Indians and the BCCI for the unwavering support. Last year, Afghanistan shifted its base from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Noida, Delhi, while India’s former batsman Lalchand Rajput replaced Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq as their national team coach.
“We have got huge support from the people of India. The BCCI too has helped us immensely. Without its support, it would not have been possible to reach this stage. Now, everybody knows us in India and hopefully, things will improve further when we start playing Tests, This means a lot for the country. With so much happening around, this would at least give them something to look forward to,” the allrounder said.