India cricket team captain Shubman Gill won the toss and decided to bat first in the one-off Test against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh, which happens to be the 31st Test venue in India. Manav Suthar, who earned his maiden Test call-up for this game, will be making his debut in Mullanpur. Like assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had hinted previously, India have gone with one specialist spinner – Kuldeep Yadav, two spin all-rounders – Manav and Sundar, and two seamers Siraj and Krishna.
India’s playing XI for IND vs AFG one-off Test
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
On bench: Gurnoor Brar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal
Ahead of the IND vs AFG off Test, Manav was handed his debut Test cap by Kuldeep Yadav. Suthar has 129 wickets and 945 runs from 29 first-class matches. He was last seen in action in the IPL 2026 back in May as a part of the Gujarat Titans.
India have fielded a batting heavy unit, with the inclusion of Dhruv Jurel adding to the depth of the side. All eyes will be on Sai Sudharsan as he has been extended the olive branch by the team management to continue to bat at number 3 ahead of Devdutt Padikkal. The Tamil Nadu batter wasn’t so impressive last year after making his debut, managing to score just 302 runs in 6 matches.
The IND vs AFG one-off Test will also be a golden chance for Rishabh Pant to go all guns blazing, especially after losing his vice-captaincy to KL Rahul. The southpaw will be playing his 50th Test, becoming the only 3rd Indian keeper after Syed Kirmani and MS Dhoni to do so.
India’s pace attack will comprise of veteran Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. Earlier this week, reports had claimed that the selectors would take a call on the Hyderabad pacer and decide if he should be a part of the one-off Test as a part of workload management. However, he bowled in full throttle in the nets and will now spearhead the pace attack. Both Siraj and Krishna were a part of GT and have been on the road for 2 consecutive months.
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