As per the proposed 2019-2023 Future Tours Programme (FTP), India is scheduled to play three ODIs against Afghanistan in early 2022. Afghanistan doesn’t figure in the proposed 2018-19 programme. The above proposal will be finalised at an ICC meeting in February 2019.
“We need only five days for a Test match against Afghanistan. The government may be also pushing for it. There are some spare days and the one-off Test can be easily arranged,” said an office-bearer of a BCCI-member association.
After India’s full series in South Africa and England in 2018, it has been proposed to play a home series against South Africa (October-November, 3 Tests, 5 ODIs, 1 T20I). India will then tour Australia (4 Tests) and New Zealand (5 ODIs, 3 T20Is) in November-January 2019 followed by home series against Australia (5 ODIs, 2 T20Is) and Zimbabwe (1 Test, 3 ODIs) in February-March 2019.
After the ICC World Cup in England in June-July, India starts with a series in the West Indies (2 Tests, 3 ODIs, 3T20Is). Thereafter, there will be a long home season against South Africa (3 Tests), West Indies (3 ODIs, 3 T20Is), Bangladesh (2 Tests, 3 T20Is), Australia (5 ODIs, 1 T0I) and again South Africa (3 ODIs, 3 T20Is). In between the Australia and South Africa home fixtures, India is scheduled to tour New Zealand (2 Tests, 3 ODIs, 5 T20Is).
So the BCCI could be looking for some days immediately after the South Africa series that ends on February 24, 2018 for the one-off Test. India is scheduled to take part in a T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka in March 2018 and there could be a big gap before the start of IPL season 11.
