Six Debutants Featured as Zimbabwe and Afghanistan Clash in Boxing Day Test

On the first day of the Boxing Day Test in Bulawa the game started very excitingly when Zimbabwe's captain, Craig Ervine, won the coin toss and decided to bat first. From both the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan teams, six new players got the chance to show their skills for the first time in a major match. Zimbabwe decided it was time for Ben Curran (he is the brother of Sam and Tom Curran) along with their fast bowlers,Trevor Gwandu and Newman Nyamhuri to step up to the major stage. On the other side, Afghanistan's leader, Hashmatullah Shahidi, brought in three new players setting Sediqullah Atal as the new man to open their batting alongside allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai and expert spinner A.M. Ghazanfar to face the challenge head-on.

Afghanistan won't have their star leg-spinner Rashid Khan because he's out for personal reasons. Atal will be the opener for Afghanistan, and Omarzai will help the middle order by playing at No. 5. Omarzai isn't only going to bat he'll also help with some medium pace bowling. The spin team will include Ghazanfar, who throws right-arm offspin. He's going to work alongside Zahir Khan, who does left-arm bowling and Zia ur-Rehman, who'll contribute as a part time left-arm spinner.

Zimbabwe decided to recalibrate things by bringing in John Gwandu and Nyamhuri to bowl alongside Blessing Muzarabani; this makes their seam attack. For their batting in the lower-middle order Brian Bennett and Brandon Mavuta were chosen, so Sikandar Raza and Johnathan Campbell are not in the main team now.

The game began under sunny skies but there's a chance rain and thunderstorms will break things later today. Afghanistan is in its first ever Boxing Day Test and for Zimbabwe this is their first home test game since 1996.

Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan Playing XI:

Zimbabwe: Craig Ervine (c), Ben Curran, Brandon Mavuta, Newman Nyamhuri, Joylord Gumbie, Takudzwanashe Kaitano, Sean Williams, Dion Myers, Brian Bennett, Newman Nyamhuri, Trevor Gwandu, Blessing Muzarabani.

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Abdul Malik, Shahidullah, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Afsar Zazai, AM Ghazanfar, Zia-ur-Rehman, Naveed Zadran, Zahir Khan.

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