Afghanistan’s national cricket team captain Asghar Stanikzai said he is positive the team will put on a good display in their debut Test match against India next month.
However, India skipper Virat Kohli will be absent from the historic Test, having opted for a county stint with Surrey to prepare for India's all-important tour of England, India’s NDTV reported.
Stanikzai played down Indian skipper's absence saying that Team India has other players that play at the level of Kohli.
Stanikzai believes the 'world class' spinners in his team will pose a challenge to the much-vaunted Indian batting line-up in the historic one-off Test in Bengaluru from 14 June, Indi’s First Post reported.
"With or without Kohli, India are a top team and even stronger at home. Kohli is a very big player and we would have enjoyed playing against him," he said.
"Irrespective of who is playing, everyone knows how tough it is to face India in India. It will be a great learning experience, but we are surely not overawed by the challenge.
We will be playing to win. We have world-class spinners in our team and they can trouble India,” he added.
"Our batsmen are in good form. In the last three or four years our team combination is good. We will try and play good and positive cricket,” Stanikzai said.
The national cricket team is currently training in Greater Noida of India but will be travelling to Dehradun later this week ahead of the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh early next month.
According to First Post, the team’s coach Phil Simmons has focused on making his team mentally and physically ready for the five-day challenge.
"We would like to learn from their players and they can learn from ours. Yes, we are playing our first Test but we are going into the game with enough first-class experience,” said Stanikzai.
"We play about 10 four-day games in a year and have won the ICC Intercontinental Cup twice. Tests will be different obviously but I would not say that there is a huge difference," said the veteran of 86 ODIs and 51 T20s.