Afghanistan have a long way to go before they can challenge the leading test nations and the best way to bridge the gap is to play regularly against their ‘A’ teams, coach Phil Simmons said after the team’s deflating long-form debut against India. In the one-off match at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, first India 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,” former West Indies player Simmons said 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.”
