India renew their acquaintance with one-off Tests

India’s tryst with one-off Tests dates back to June 1932, and their inaugural Test, against England at Lord’s. In the intervening 94 years, they have played just 14 more such games, among them the first-ever Tests for Zimbabwe (October 1992) in Harare, Bangladesh (November 2000) in Dhaka and Afghanistan (June 2018) in Bengaluru.

There have been two standalone historic outings — the Golden Jubilee showdown against England in Bombay, as it was then, in February 1980, and against Australia in New Delhi in October 1996 to herald the installation of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as the symbol of Test supremacy between the sides. India also qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in the first two editions, going down to New Zealand in Southampton in June 2021 and to Australia at the Oval in June 2023.

Nearly three years to the day (June 7) since the Oval faceoff, they renew their acquaintance with an isolated Test when they lock horns with Afghanistan from Saturday in a match which doesn’t have too much significance in the context of five-day cricket as it exists now. But then again, when has there been a Test match without any significance (New Zealand’s two-and-a-half-day rout of Ireland last week notwithstanding)?

Redefining the landscape

In so many ways, the WTC has redefined the landscape of Test cricket. As it is, only nine of the 12 nations are part of this championship —Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland have been excluded — and even then, it isn’t an all-play-all format. Every nation must play a minimum of six series, three at home and three away, with no series of less than two matches. Points are awarded for outright victories and draws — no bonus points for innings or 10-wicket wins or overseas triumphs which, pundits feel, ought to receive greater weightage — and the two top teams with the best percentage points make it to the knockout final, with the next title clash scheduled for Lord’s 12 months from now.

Teams can play, and have played, full series outside the ambit of the WTC, but those are understandably not that frequent. As it is, the slant towards white-ball internationals, and particularly the T20 iteration, is marked and most nations are content meeting the bare minimum Test requirements. Very few series spill over beyond two-Test affairs, except those that India, Australia and England play against each other. These three marquee contests have become five-match pow-wows, in keeping with both their perceived standing as the three best sides in the world and the ability of these contests to attract sizeable attention.

It’s nobody’s fault that in their eight years as a Test entity, Afghanistan have played just 12 games while India have played 13 Tests in Australia alone. Eventually, commerce will direct such outcomes, no matter how unfair that might seem. Five of Afghanistan’s 12 fixtures have come against Zimbabwe and two against Ireland; their other Test opponents, apart from India, have been Sri Lanka and West Indies (one match apiece) and Bangladesh (two games), which tells a story in itself.

It can be argued, with good reason, that those outside the WTC can’t become better if they don’t play against the higher-ranked teams more frequently. By the same token, it must be kept in mind that these ‘higher-ranked teams’ are already grappling with a packed calendar and therefore don’t have either the desire or the window or both to accommodate the ‘lesser lights’. One of the possible solutions is to instead have the ‘A’ teams of the big countries playing against the likes of Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland. But again, cost is a big factor and while it is all nice and fine to sit in our living rooms and apportion responsibility to the established nations to lift the standards of the relative newbies, practicality and ideal scenarios don’t always go hand in glove.

Anyway, back to this standalone contest in which the stakes might appear marginal, but only to those watching on from the outer. There is a lot more at stake for the home side, which will obviously begin overwhelming favourites in a match which won’t impact the WTC, not least because of disappointing results in their backyard in the last 18 months catalysed largely by persevering rather than unplayable spinners from first New Zealand and then South Africa.

News, especially bad news, travels fast and the cricket world is no exception. The justified consensus is that on spin-friendly pitches, India’s batters don’t inspire the same confidence as on terrific batting decks or as did masters of the recent past, the Sehwags and the Gambhirs and the Tendulkars, the Dravids and the Laxmans who feasted on spin of any quality with nimbleness of feet, deftness and softness of hands and suppleness of wrists. New Zealand and South Africa, largely through Mitchell Santner and Simon Harmer respectively, have exposed the soft underbelly that India’s batting against the turning ball has come to resemble. Despite their lack of experience, Afghanistan’s spinners will be licking their lips, though Hashmatullah Shahidi will rue the unavailability of talisman and former skipper Rashid Khan, on a break from the five-day game on medical advice.

New Chandigarh will not throw up a spinners’ haven. It’s also likely that Gautam Gambhir will, belatedly, divorce himself from his fascination for turners when Australia come calling early next year for the mandatory five-Test series in India’s next home engagement. What pitches of dubious quality achieve is artificially bridge the gulf between Indian and overseas spinners. Even though India’s spin aura has been significantly weakened by the retirement of R. Ashwin in December 2024, there is still enough class in Ravindra Jadeja (rested for this game), Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar, among others, to test batters with their skill through the air, as much as anything else.

India have rested pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah to keep him fresh for the challenges ahead, of which there are several in the red-ball version. India travel to Sri Lanka in August for two matches and to New Zealand for two further Tests in November-December. The admittedly creditable 2-2 draw in England last summer and the 0-2 drubbing at the hands of South Africa in November have left India needing to stack up between six and seven wins in their remaining nine Tests to guarantee themselves a place in the Lord’s WTC final. Towards that end, if they can get a useful run out against the Afghans to bolster their morale, they would look at the next few days as a worthwhile exercise — and all this without the slightest disrespect to Afghanistan.

In one of those strange but staggering quirks, until this Test was belatedly added to the calendar, there was to have been no five-day game in India for the whole of 2026. There still might not be — a five-day affair, that is — but the exigencies of broadcaster obligations have dictated a slew of white-ball internationals at home even though contextually, they don’t add up to a great deal. The next 50-over World Cup is still some 16 months away and there isn’t a T20 World Cup until 2028, so one would have thought there would be some focus on Test cricket, but hey, what do we know?

While there won’t be a great deal riding on the outcome — unless, somehow, Afghanistan conjure a miracle and slay big bad Goliath — there will be interesting subplots and plenty to prove for certain individuals within the Indian mix. On top of that list will be two vastly different — in character and style — left-handed top-order batters who are coming into the Test with contrasting fortunes in IPL 2026.

Like he did last season too, Sai Sudharsan stacked up more than 700 runs, one of the main reasons for Gujarat Titans entering the final of the competition for the third time in five years. The 24-year-old from Chennai is still in his first year in Test cricket and has featured in just six games, but he hasn’t had a great time of it. A mere two half-centuries in 11 innings and a modest average of 27.45 reflect his woes accurately. The think-tank, which includes his Test and Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill, rate him highly and are convinced he is the long-term No. 3, but Sai Sudharsan hasn’t done a lot to justify that conviction.

The perception on the outside is that Sai Sudharsan is in a battle with Devdutt Padikkal, another left-hander, for the No. 3 slot. Padikkal, who also had a terrific IPL with eventual champs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, finished the Ranji Trophy in a blaze of personal glory after being entrusted with the Karnataka captaincy and carrying them to the final, where they lost to Jammu & Kashmir. Whether he gets the nod at one-drop, however, is the million-dollar question, with Sai Sudharsan looming as the favourite to retain his place.

The other batter seeking redemption is the once exuberant but now terribly subdued individual answering to the name of Rishabh Pant, who led India in their previous Test, a record 408-run hammering by South Africa while standing in for the injured Gill. In the last few days, Pant has lost his Test vice-captaincy and stepped down (asked to?) as Lucknow Super Giants skipper following the franchise’s cellar status. Pant himself had a season to forget with the bat, the free spirit replaced by a careworn, unsmiling, often testy presence clearly adversely impacted by the string of shattering losses.

Plenty to prove

Since August 2024, Pant has been pretty much only a one-format international, and while there is no immediate threat to his Test spot (as chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar helpfully clarified while replacing him as vice-captain with K.L. Rahul), he will feel the need to prove to himself that his mojo is very much still his ally. Elevated to No. 5 in deference to his unquestioned class which has manifested itself in eight hundreds and an average of 42.91 from 49 Tests, Pant will be itching to cut loose, now that he doesn’t have an official leadership responsibility riding on his shoulders.

The Afghanistan Test was seen as a great opportunity to bring Auqib Nabi, the J&K quick who finished the Ranji season with 60 wickets as he bowled his side to a historic maiden triumph, into the Test mix. The selectors deemed otherwise even though there is no Bumrah. What use a bushel of wickets then in the country’s premier domestic first-class competition, you ask? We agree, whole-heartedly.