Afghanistan coach Rajput has a long-term vision for Test arena
They were all very excited that they will all be called Test players. Every cricketer’s dream is to be a Test cricketer, that’s the real test. You have to have a price on your wicket, you can’t throw your wicket easily. Plus the temperamental aspect, the mental toughness.
While Afghanistan celebrate their lofty status as a Testplaying nation, far away in Mumbai, head coach Lalchand Rajput is busy plotting how to instil a five-day temperament into a team more attuned to the hardhitting nature of limited-overs cricket.
Cricket gained popularity in Afghanistan when refugees residing in Pakistan after fleeing a homeland ravaged by the Soviet-Afghan War took the sport home with them in the 1990s.
“It’s a great achievement for them. Every country would like to be called as a Test-playing country,” former India cricketer Rajput said.
“Theyhavebeenworkinghard for the last couple of years. And this is the reward which they got after consistently performing, especially the last year has been very good. “We started beating Test sides, we beat Zimbabwe, we beat Ireland. It’s a big thing for the sport in Afghanistan and its people. They are so passionate about cricket there.”
A former Mumbai batsman with a first-class average of close to 50, Rajput was manager of the India team that won the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007.
In June last year, he was named head coach of Afghanistan, replacing former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.
“Everybody was keenly waiting for this ICC meeting to happen,” Rajput, who played two Tests and four ODIs for India, said.