Mullanpur: Battling demons of a horrendous home Test run in the not so distant past but nevertheless a formidable unit, India are pitted against a plucky Afghanistan in a one-off Test here that might help the hosts figure out a balanced combination, starting Saturday.
In 2018, Afghanistan lost 10 wickets in a session between lunch and tea on the second day of the Test against India. The next 10 fell by the wayside between tea and end of day’s play which also was end of the game.
In 2026, Hashmatullah Shahidi would want his team to at least stretch the home side which is going through a tough transition phase and will be in experimental mode during this game trying different combinations.
However, the Indians would not have forgotten the 0-2 drubbing handed by a meticulously prepared South Africa last year and would do well to not take the opposition lightly despite the gulf in experience.
Sai to get long rope
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A stable No.3 and Ravindra Jadeja’s potential successor in red ball cricket are the two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shubman Gill need to fix during this game before the important two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in August.
The choice has been between Sai Sudharsan and the stylish Devdutt Padikkal. Gambhir on Friday made it clear that Sudharsan would be persisted with, insisting that he deserves a fair chance.
Hunt for Jadeja’s successor
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Ravindra Jadeja has been rested for this match but this is a fact that the Indian selectors and team management are trying to look at options to prepare themselves for life beyond the Rajkot all-rounder.
The reason for this search is his bowling form, which has deteriorated considerably and he hasn’t been as incisive as the team management would have liked.
What remains Jadeja’s USP is his Test match batting in overseas conditions, which is still top notch and hence he still has some breathing space.
But Indian cricket has zeroed in on two potential successors.
The choice is now between a classical slow left-arm orthodox bowler from Rajasthan named Manav Suthar and the more utility ‘bits and pieces’ Vidarbha cricketer Harsh Dubey.
If net sessions of the past couple of days were an indication, Suthar, with a more classical action and ability to make the ball hang in the air, looks to be the man for the future.
He seems to possess the ability to challenge both outside and inside edge of the bat.
Dubey, on the other hand, looks a more defensive bowler, mostly bowling straight lines. But he does come across a clean hitter, something that makes him a package like Jadeja for foreign conditions.
The choice will be a tricky one and an indicator of the team management’s tactical philosophy.
Afghans have nothing to lose
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The mismatch between the two sides is more evident when one looks at some numbers.
Since Afghanistan’s first ever Test against India in 2018 in Bengaluru, which the hosts won inside two days, it has played 11 more games till June 2026.
And India, in this same period, have played 67 Tests with Rishabh Pant alone being a part of 49 of them. Incidentally Pant hadn’t yet made his Test debut when Afghanistan last played India.
From the 2018 squad, only KL Rahul is a part of this current Indian Test team while Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and batter Rahmat Shah were also the ones who played that game.
Afghanistan’s entire batting line-up has a combined total of nine Test tons compared to the 39 that this new-look Indian team has logged.
Shahidi’s men had a camp in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad but training sessions alone cannot prepare a team for a Test match.
‘Testing’ weather for Test match
Given the punishing North Indian heat in the month of June, the match seems fairly ill-timed for both the sides.
And it has been sandwiched between two months of IPL and a month long white ball tour of the United Kingdom.
During the training sessions, the Indian players, after fielding drills inside the main arena, would hop into SUVs one at a time and would be driven half a kilometer to the adjacent ground for net practice, a walkable distance if not for the scorching afternoon sun.
