It’s only a one-off Test against Afghanistan, outside the ambit of the World Test Championship (alongside Zimbabwe and Ireland, Afghanistan are not a part of the WTC), but it can’t be dismissed as only a one-off Test simply because India play so little Test cricket these days.
India’s last Test, against South Africa in Guwahati, ended in a crushing defeat on November 26. Their next skirmishes in the WTC aren’t until the middle of August, when they travel to Sri Lanka for a two-match joust. The Afghanistan Test in New Chandigarh, from June 6, is their only home Test for the entirety of 2026, and even though it doesn’t count for much in a tangible sense, it’s perhaps the tentative beginning of a new era in the five-day game so far as India are concerned.
There is no Jasprit Bumrah or Ravindra Jadeja, both rested ahead of ‘more gruelling’ showdowns in store. The uncapped trio of strapping pacer Gurnoor Brar and left-arm spinners Manav Suthar and Harsh Dubey — the first-named 25, and the two tweakers 23 each – have got a look-in, while Mohammed Shami continues to be overlooked and KL Rahul has been named as vice-captain to Shubman Gill, instead of Rishabh Pant, who enjoyed that privilege from the tour of England last June and who led India to a record defeat in Guwahati in his maiden outing as Test skipper.
What are we to make of these selections? How much should we read into them? Should we read anything at all into these calls? Well, why not? So, here goes:
PANT’S AXING AS TEST DEPUTY
At 28, Rishabh Pant is a veteran of 49 Tests, 31 ODIs (the last of which came on 7 August 2024) and 76 T20Is (he hasn’t represented the country in the shortest format since 28 July 2024). His elevation as Gill’s deputy last year, as India embarked on the post-Rohit Sharma/Virat Kohli era, suggested that the powers-that-be had identified him as a leader-in-waiting, but now, the jury seems to have changed its verdict in what is perhaps a knee-jerk reaction. The choice of his replacement is interesting. Rahul is among the few players to have captained the country in all three formats, but when Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, addressed the media last October in Ahmedabad, during the first Test against West Indies, he all but scoffed when he was asked about whether the Karnataka skipper had been considered for a leadership role.
On Tuesday, the former India all-rounder sang a different tune. “That’s the best option we think at this point that we have as far as vice-captain with experience,” Agarkar said. “We saw during the South African series as well when Shubman got injured. And KL provides us with the necessary experience that you need in case the situation arises. Plus, he has obviously had a really good tour of England and against the West Indies.” A clear change of heart there, even as Agarkar sought to explain Pant’s ‘demotion’. “We want him to become the best Test player that he has always been. I don’t think there is any concern with his spot in the Test team. I think he is one of our main batters in that line-up. (He) had a really good tour of England till he got injured. He has always been very good in Test cricket.”
To say that Pant, the Test batter, has been put on notice will be an exaggeration, but it is clear that as far as a leadership role is concerned, the selectors are looking beyond him for the time being. For how long, is anybody’s guess. Pant has been left to his own devices as a batter. He hasn’t had a great IPL and will feel internal pressure, more than anything else, to make a meaningful contribution, especially with reserve stumper Dhruv Jurel breathing down his neck.
SHAMI OVERLOOKED, AGAIN
Whether it’s a battle of egos is something only the protagonists can answer, but there is no doubting that the decision-makers believe there is no place for the experienced pacer from Bengal in their scheme of things. The 35-year-old picked up 37 wickets in seven matches in the Ranji Trophy, where his state lost to eventual champions Jammu & Kashmir in the semifinal. He returned an outstanding average of 16.72, took crucial wickets, wasn’t down on pace, continued to make the ball dance to his tune and bowled long spells without losing incisiveness or intensity, allaying any potential concerns about his fitness. He began IPL 2026 brilliantly for Lucknow Super Giants before tapering off with just three wickets and an economy rate in excess of 10 in his last five games, though IPL form can’t be a yardstick for Test-match selection. The outstanding quick, who has 229 wickets in 64 red-ball internationals at a strike-rate of 50.2 per wicket, is a 12-year Test veteran but it would appear as if he has played his last match for the country, even if he and numerous others believe he has plenty of cricket left in him.
With Bumrah rested, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna loom as the main pacers, with the six-foot-five Brar, from Punjab, emerging as a surprise inclusion. Auqib Nabi, the J&K pacer who took 60 wickets during his team’s charge to the title, was tipped for a Test call-up but Brar’s height seems to have won him the nod. “With Gurnoor, we have seen a lot of promise over the last season-and-a-half now,” Agarkar said. “Tall guy with a bit of pace. You do not necessarily pick a lot of seamers when you pick a Test team in India. And he (Nabi) was close. But at this point, we have gone with the three that we have picked.”
THE BRAR SURPRISE
From Muktsar in Punjab, the towering right-arm quick has played only 18 first-class games, the last of them last November, and averages less than three wickets per game. His economy is on the higher side (3.61) but he has played alongside Gill from their Under-19 days and is part of the Indian Test and ODI captain’s Gujarat Titans side without getting any game-time, even though the 2022 champions shelled out ₹1.3 crore for his services. Brar’s last ten representative matches have all been with the white ball – two T20 games for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, followed by eight 50-over games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy which have fetched him 11 wickets. He also figures in the ODI side against Afghanistan though his selection to the Test squad has to be seen more as a show of faith in someone whom the system has invested in a lot for a couple of years. Nabi, the excellent 29-year-old swing exponent from J&K who accounted for Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and R Smaran (first ball) on his way to five for 54 in the Ranji Trophy final in Hubballi, must consider himself distinctly unlucky – he has more than 100 first-class wickets in the last two seasons – but Brar has been in the India ‘A’ setup and Nabi hasn’t, which perhaps tilted the scales the taller man’s way.
SUTHAR, DUBEY IN PITCHED BATTLE
While Brar hasn’t played a single IPL game, both Suthar and Dubey have been in action, the former for Shubman Gill’s Gujarat and the latter for Sunrisers Hyderabad, both of whom have made it to the playoffs. Agarkar took pains to point out that Jadeja has only been rested for the Test, which means this is an audition of sorts for his two likely successors. Both have reasonable all-rounder-in-the-making credentials, averaging more than 25 with the bat in red-ball cricket. There isn’t much to choose between them when it comes to bowling, either; Suthar has 129 wickets in 29 matches at 25.76, Dubey boasts 133 scalps at 23.26 from 27 outings. One of them will get the nod only if India pick a third spinner alongside Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar, a development that will be dictated by how the think-tank reads the Mullanpur surface. Dubey has played eight times (8 wickets) for Sunrisers this IPL compared to Suthar’s four (2 wickets) for the Titans, which perhaps explains why the Vidarbha lad has earned a spot in the 50-over side ahead of his competitor from Rajasthan.
