AFG vs NZ One Off Test: Persistent rain and overnight showers resulted in an early washout without the toss being held for the third straight day. The Afghanistan vs New Zealand One-Off test is scheduled to be played at Grater Noida Sports Complex Ground.
The first two days of the test were canceled due to the outfield not meeting international standards. Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) who is the home team in this match, has been offered three stadiums in Kanpur, Bengaluru, and Noida.
But they chose Noida due to logistics reasons. “The BCCI offered us three venues – Kanpur, Bengaluru, and this one. We chose to play at Greater Noida as it was most convenient in terms of logistics. It was a two-hour drive from Delhi airport,” said ACB’s international cricket manager Menhajuddin Raz.
“The venue has always been Afghanistan’s home venue. If we talk about back from 2016, we have been playing games here.”
“It is because of the rain. Yesterday also, it rained. We had a three-day game here with one of the local teams which went well. We didn’t face any issues. But when the rain started all of this happened.”
With the outfield less likely to support the playing conditions, both teams will be looking to get some match time especially New Zealand is keen as they are set to play a three-match test series against India in October-November.
Afghanistan Cricket Board has hosted 11 White ball games in the venue and they have also hosted games in Dehradun.
“We had conducted a recce four to six months back, and even the visiting team had done their recce. So there was no issue” said Raaz.
“We tried working on a solution to shift the game and they said that because of the same rain, you will not be able to, you know, actually prepare the venue for you in the coming next 24 hours.”
The last time the first three days of the test were abandoned was in 2008 which was played between New Zealand and Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
AFG vs NZ One off Test Squad
Afghanistan
Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ikram Alikhil (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Riaz Hassan, Bahir Shah, Shahidullah Kamal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Khalil Ahmed, Zia-ur-Rehman, Afsar Zazai, Nijat Masood, Shamsurrahman, Abdul Malik
New Zealand
Tom Latham (wk), Tim Southee (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, Matt Henry, Tom Blundell, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, William ORourke
