Afghanistan hope to draw inspiration from 2019 win

Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said on Monday that they are taking inspiration from their massive Test win against Bangladesh as they prepare to take on the hosts in the one-off Test, scheduled at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the city from tomorrow (Wednesday), reports Cricbuzz.
Afghanistan, who played six Test matches so far after being awarded Test status in 2018, defeated Bangladesh by 224 runs in 2019 and though they haven't played a lot since then, Shahidi feels they have a strong domestic structure in place to make sure they perform whenever there is an opportunity for them to play Test cricket.
"It inspires us because we played only one Test here and we won that so that gives us a lot of confidence and we will try to start it from there for the next game and our aim will be to be positive and take confidence from the last game," Shahidi said in the city on Monday after his side's first practice session since arriving in Bangladesh. "Expectation is high we are here to play good cricket and want to win the game.
"Yes, we had a lot of gaps because last time we played against Zimbabwe two years ago. We play domestic first-class games and a lot of players are involved in that. We have good first-class domestic cricket. We have eight to nine first-class games and the cricket board is trying to increase it because if you are playing the longer format in domestic cricket it will help you improve your game in Test cricket," he said.