AFGHANS SIM-PLY OUTCLASSED

DEFLATED: Simmons AFGHANISTAN have a long way to go before they can challenge the top Test nations, claims coach Phil Simmons after they were thrashed by India.

The war-ravaged country became the 12th Test-playing nation when they took on top-ranked India in the one-off match at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium starting last Thursday.

However much-changed India, without skipper Virat Kohli, first forced Afghanistan to follow-on before dismissing them twice in as many sessions for their biggest Test victory inside two days. “The learning curve is huge,” said former West Indies opener Simmons after his team were thrashed by an innings and 262 runs in a total mismatch.

“It’s a mountain to climb. But I do believe they want to succeed, they want to be good at it and they work very hard.

“We now know that we have to work five times as hard as we worked in the last four weeks. I believe that they will get there.” Afghanistan can Cardiff, Australia won toss England J Roy J Bairstow A Hales J Root J Buttler S Billings M Ali D Willey L Plunkett A Rashid

120

42

26

22

91

11

8

11

1

0

10 Total 8 wkts (50 ovs) ...................... 342

Fall:

Bowling: T Head D Short S Marsh M Stoinis A Finch G Maxwell A Agar T Paine

A Tye J RIchardson K RIchardson

19

21

131

9

0

31

46

15

10

2

0

20 Total (47.1 ovs) ............................... 304

Fall:

Bowling: Australia TON THE BUSINESS: Jason Roy finds the boundary compete in limited-overs cricket, as their 3-0 blanking of Bangladesh in a Twenty20 series proved – but Test cricket is a different story.

However, they are getting a helping hand from India, who will provide them with makeshift home grounds and practice matches against their own visiting opponents to boost their progress.

“You can play as much Intercontinental Cup and four-day cricket as you want but when you get to the big leagues, especially against the number one team in the world, it shows,” said Simmons.