Asghar Afghan is to Afghanistan what Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi is to India. Last week, Asghar, a middle-order batsman who occasionally bowls, captained Afghanistan to their first ever Test win, by seven wickets against Ireland, in Dehradun, in only the second Test that the war-ravaged country played. They had lost their first Test to India in Hyderabad last year. Compared with Afghanistan, India had to wait for almost 36 years and 24 matches to register their maiden win, under Pataudi’s captaincy and against New Zealand in Dunedin in February 1968.