Afghanistan will embark on a new journey in their cricket history when they make their Test debut against a Virat Kohli-less No.1-ranked India in the historic one-off Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. Afghanistan, who are rising through the ranks of world cricket, have named a spin-heavy squad for their debut Test to give India a taste of their own medicine. The squad comprises five spinners in Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Zahir Khan and left-arm spinner Hamza Kotak, who incidentally emerged as the leading wicket-taker in the recently concluded first-class competition. India have a little advantage in the upcoming Test as their batsmen have already faced a couple of Afghan spinners in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Afghan stars Rashid and Mujeeb enjoyed fruitful campaigns in the IPL, playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab respectively. But the home side have to be a little conscious that they don’t slip on a potential banana skin as they come into the game without any match practice.

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India also have a couple of new players in their squad, which will make Rahane’s task of fielding the right combination a bit difficult. Three key players — regular skipper Kohli along with pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been rested as they prepare for the challenging tour to England next month. New inclusions like wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and Karun Nair will aim to make the most of this chance and would like to cement their place in the playing XI. The batting department seems settled with the likes of Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Lokesh Rahul, Karun Nair and Dinesh Karthik. In the bowling department, India have the star spinning trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav along with pacers Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.

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Meanwhile Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Afghanistan team through twitter for playing their first International test match and wished for the long time friendship with the country.

I congratulate the people of Afghanistan as their cricket team plays their first international test match. Glad that they have chosen to play the historic match with India. Best wishes to both teams! May sports continue to bring our people closer and strengthen ties.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 14, 2018

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Most of the twitter users replied by commenting the memes of him which is made of his fitness challenge video that released yesterday. And one of the user also criticized Modi for always being Entertainment-minded. Comments which came in support of Modi also surfaced.

pic.twitter.com/QlqVjLs1M5

— Pankaj Nayan Gautam (@imgautam_pn) June 14, 2018

#LifeOfModi

Entertainment Entertainment and Entertainment pic.twitter.com/2aiwoIIrp1

— Padma Rani INDIAN (@KPadmaRani1) June 14, 2018

Dear Sir,
Good morning. Sports bring people close. True. But we are much more closer to you than sports. Please instruct the labour minister to renotify the amended gratuity act to 01 01 2016 so that our closeness remains in fact.

— R Padmanabhan (@RPadmanabhan9) June 14, 2018

After #FitnessChallenge its cricketing time !!#LifeOfModi … Entertainment Entertainment and Entertainment pic.twitter.com/BKN6seckZ0

— Padma Rani INDIAN (@KPadmaRani1) June 14, 2018

pic.twitter.com/j9VL548grB

— हलकट स्वामी (@HalkatSwami) June 14, 2018

Dear Modi Ji. I am planning to open chai shop very soon. Please bless me in this venture. Also if you have any secret recipe for making chai than please share.

— Samdarshi Kafka Jha (@samdarshijha) June 14, 2018

தமிழ்நாடு மக்கள் தெரியலயா உங்களுக்கு

— Hariharan (@Hari9haran) June 14, 2018

Sir when you will congratulate rrbians for the implementation of pension at par with with sponsor bank as per supreme court’s verdict on 25 April 2018 do you agree pension is for social security of senior citizens many rrbians left us and many more are suffering a lot

— bhanu pratap (@bhanu_pratap21) June 14, 2018

டேய், இது வரைக்கும் நீ தூத்துக்குடி பத்தி ஏதாவுது சொன்னியா?

மிச்சர் மண்டையா.

— வல்வில் ஓரி (@ValvilOari) June 14, 2018

मोदीजी ने फिटनेस दिखाने के लिए दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण दिन चुना..जब देश जवानों के जनाजों को कंधा दे रहा था तब मोदीजी फिटनेस वीडियो जारी कर रहे थे। pic.twitter.com/1ECnLaP0Gd

— अच्छे दिनों का ढोल (@honesty_4india) June 14, 2018