It has been eight years, but Rais Ahmadzai still remembers it like yesterday. As Yamin Ahmadzai ran in to bowl to M Vijay at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 14, 2018, his chest swelled with pride. Afghanistan had just become the 12th nation to play Test cricket.
Rais, a former middle-order batter who played five ODIs and eight T20Is, had already retired by then. Yet, he was very much part of the history as the team's assistant coach.
Though Afghanistan lost inside two days by an innings, their bowlers showed genuine promise. In their next two Tests, they beat Ireland by seven wickets in Dehradun and Bangladesh by 224 runs in Chattogram. After six Tests, they had three wins to their name - a start matched only by Australia.
That was March 2021. In the years that followed, momentum slipped away. They played no Test in 2022, and only one in 2023. As they prepare to face India once again, in New Chandigarh, they have only 12 matches of experience - most of them against lower-ranked sides. They are yet to face South Africa, Australia or England.
"We love to play Test cricket," Rais, who has been Afghanistan's director of cricket and now coaches their U-19 and A teams, tells ESPNcricinfo. "But so far, we have played only a handful. If a country is spending money on first-class cricket, they deserve to play eight to ten Tests a year.
"Only then will the youngsters take interest and the board can push senior players to represent the country in the format. Right now, we play one or two Test matches a year. After ten months of white-ball cricket, it's not easy to switch to red-ball cricket."
Not being part of the World Test Championship (WTC) doesn't help Afghanistan's cause. Recently, the ICC was considering including one-off Tests in the next WTC cycle, but the idea doesn't seem to have generated much interest.
"A lot of things are not in our hands," Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan's current Test captain, says. "We have first-class cricket in our country - everybody plays six-seven games every year, so that experience is also with us. But in Test cricket, there are tougher oppositions, so we need more opportunities to build our side.
"Our players have a lot of potential, a lot of talent, and we will try our best to prove ourselves in red-ball cricket as well. Hopefully, if we perform well in this format, the ICC will include us in the WTC cycle."
Shahidi and Rahmat Shah are the most experienced Afghanistan players with 11 Tests each. But the team's start-stop journey has led to little continuity. In their 12 Tests, Afghanistan have handed 41 debuts, the most for any team that began playing Test cricket after the Second World War. Of those 41, 23 have played either one or two Tests.
"We are always accepting challenges - not hiding, not going backwards. So while this Test will be a challenge for us, we will try to fight and try to go for the win" Hashmatullah Shahidi
A bigger issue perhaps lies in the gulf between their domestic cricket and Test cricket. The Ahmad Shah Abdali Trophy, their premier first-class cricket tournament, features four teams in a double round-robin followed by a final. While Shahidi believes the standard is improving every year, Rais says there is still a lot of work to do.
However, with the national team hardly playing Test cricket, the players cannot be blamed if they focus more on white-ball cricket. Many of the Afghan internationals - including Rashid Khan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Azmatullah Omarzai, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad, Qais Ahmad and Mujeeb Ur Rahman - are regulars in T20 leagues across the world, and the youngsters want to follow in their footsteps.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) is trying to strike a balance. They now allow their players to participate in only up to three overseas T20 leagues a year.
"We want them to respect and play our domestic cricket," Rais says. "If they do so, all play, it will improve the competition and help us bridge the gap between domestic cricket and Test cricket.
"Another thing we need is good fast bowlers, and for that we need to prepare spicy tracks. We have bowlers who can hit 140kph but right now, spinners come into the attack after just ten overs.
"Everyone wants to be the next Rashid, Mujeeb or Noor, because they are the role models. If fast bowlers start taking 25-30 wickets in a first-class season, the youngsters will also want to become one."
Rais also wants more red-ball tours for the A side. But despite all these challenges, both he and Shahidi are confident Afghanistan will be more competitive against India this time, even without Ibrahim Zadran and Rashid.
"That was the first game for us in red-ball cricket," Shahidi says of the 2018 match. "Since then, we have played a lot of cricket and learnt a great deal. The team performance and the team environment - everything is different now."
To prepare for this Test, Afghanistan held a skills camp in Kabul and then played three three-day matches in Jalalabad. Apart from Omarzai, who was playing in the IPL, every squad member was part of it.
When asked about their temperament for Test cricket, Shahidi gives his and Rahmat's example. "I have two double-hundreds in 11 games. Rahmat Shah has scored a double-hundred. Others have also scored hundreds. That shows we have patience and we know how to score runs in this format.
"Similarly, our bowlers have taken five-wicket hauls. If you want to take five wickets in a Test match, you have to be patient, you have to be disciplined.
"And we are always accepting challenges - not hiding, not going backwards. So while this Test will be a challenge for us, we will try to fight and try to go for the win."