In the holy month of Ramadan, under the leadership of Virat Kohli’s deputy Ajinkya Rahane, India locked the horns with Afghanistan in the historic one-off Test match at Bengaluru in M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Virat Kohli's deputy Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and opted to bat first which gave Dhawan the license to blast against an inexperienced bowling lineup.
Afghanistan awarded full member status alongside Ireland in June last year, Afghanistan becomes the 12th test playing nation in less than two decades after being recognised by International Cricket Council in 2001.
Shikher Dhawan became the sixth batsman and the first Indian batsman in the history of the Test match to score a hundred before lunch on Day 1 of a Test match. Before Dhawan Victor Trumper, Charlie Macartney, Don Bradman, Majid Khan and David Warner already achieved this feat.
However, Rahane leads a side which may see a few players make their Test debut such as Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini. Initially, batsman Sanju Samson.
Cricbuzz🙌🙌
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 14, 2018
He also becomes the first Indian to score a century before Lunch on Day 1 of Test cricket.#INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/6stA1rdafS
India Squad:
Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini
Afghanistan Squad:
Mohammad Shahzad(w), Javed Ahmadi, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Stanikzai(c), Nasir Jamal, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Yamin Ahmadzai, Sayed Shirzad, Wafadar, Zahir Khan, Ihsanullah Janat, Amir Hamza, Afsar Zazai