It was announced last year that the Test cricket family is going to welcome two new members—Ireland and Afghanistan. After almost 19 years the International Cricket Council (ICC) has granted Test status to any nation.

Ireland will start their journey in the five-day game with their maiden Test against Pakistan on May 11 while Afghanistan will step into the age-old format of cricket by playing against India on June 14.

The Afghans will be playing bilateral Test series against England, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Ireland in both home and away conditions until March 2022. ACB CEO Shafiq Stanikzai confirmed in Kolkata on Wednesday where he is attending the five-day ICC quarterly meeting. There he talked about the countries' Future Tour Program (FTP).

The ACB CEO said, “These series does not come under the Test Championship, these will be all bilateral series — home and away.”

“As of now it’s not yet decided. But there will be, we are deliberating,” he replied when asked about Afghanistan's possibilities of playing a day-night Test.

India will be hosting the sub-continental team at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. ACB’s close ties with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) helped them set up the debut clash against the No.1 ranked Test team who also played Bangladesh in their inaugural Test match. 

According to him, the maiden fixture is good for the Afghans as they won’t be playing in the Test Championship. However, the newly added Test playing nation will not get any further matches against India from 2019 to March 2022.

“India are a tough team to get hold of because they are very busy. Since we are not in Test Championship, the inaugural Test match is good enough for us. We are playing 14-18 Tests in new FTP cycle,” said Stanikzai.