Afghanistan to host West Indies in Lucknow
LUCKNOW : Ever since getting the full member status from the International Cricket Council in June 2017, Afghanistan team have been graduating to the top bracket of the cricket playing nations in the world with a consistent showing.
Afghanistan had lost their first-ever Test match against India in 2017, but it opened a new chapter for them. Almost after two years and five months since then, Afghanistan is all set to unleash yet another chapter in its cricketing history, hosting former World Champions West Indies for a full home series here in Lucknow, which they have adopted as their new home ground.
The series, which starts on November 5 with the conduct of the first Twenty20, includes three T20s, three ODIS and oneoff Test, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here. The T20 matches would be played under the lights.
The Afghanistan Vs West Indies Test match, which starts on November 27, would be the second Test match on Lucknow soil as the last Test match played at the K D Singh ‘Babu’ stadium in Lucknow was in 1994, when India played against Sri Lanka and won comfortable.
Only this year, Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chose the state capital as its home ground. A team of ACB officials have already visited the venue to look after the preparations of the series. In a couple of week’s time, both ACB and the Ekana Sportz City would ink a deal officially.
“Within a week’s time, we will sign the long-term deal with ACB,” Ekana Sportz City’s managing director Udai Sinha said on Monday.
In terms of ranking in the world, Afghanistan ranked seventh ahead of West Indies, which are ranked 10th. But in the ODI,
Caribbean are placed at ninth position, whereas Afghanistan are at the 10th position.
Out of 123 ODIs played so far by Afghanistan, they have won 59, losing 60 and this includes only four wins in 17 matches this year.
In Twenty20, they have a better record as out of 75, they have won 51 matches, losing just 24. Out of seven matches this year so far, Afghans have won five matches.
The Afghan side holds a better winning record against West Indies as out of six meetings so far in ODIs, they defeated West Indies on three occasions, losing twice whereas the one match had no result.