The BCCI has named India’s squad for the two-Test tour of Sri Lanka starting August 15 in Galle. At first glance, there are a few surprises, but nothing to worry about. All the usual names have been named. Saransh Jain, the 33-year-old Madhya Pradesh offspinner, has grabbed the headlines with his maiden call-up. Ravindra Jadeja is back after his post-IPL break, while B Sai Sudharshan and Jasprit Bumrah are in a race against time to be fit.
Meanwhile, Manav Suthar, fresh off a stunning six-wicket Test debut against Afghanistan in June, is retained too. And Gurnoor Brar, the towering Punjab pacer newly capped in ODIs, will be hopeful of a first Test appearance. On paper, India look to be blooding a healthy crop of new bowlers.
But Saransh is in the squad only because Washington Sundar tore his hamstring in England and hasn’t recovered in time — an opening expected to last a matter of weeks. Harsh Dubey, who broke a Ranji Trophy wicket-taking record in 2024-25 and earned a maiden call-up (but not a debut) for the one-off Test against Afghanistan last month, has already been squeezed out now that Ravindra Jadeja is fit again. And three of the most talked-about pace debutants of the last two years, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj and Harshit Rana, aren’t in the squad at all.
That is the real story of India’s bowling debutants through this World Test Championship cycle — fillers and stand-ins for an injured or rested incumbent, not developed as the next generation of the attack.
Merry-go-round of forgotten debuts
Akash Deep’s case undercuts the easiest excuse — that these bowlers simply haven’t been good enough. He debuted in February 2024 and took 28 wickets across his first 10 Tests, headlined by a career-best 10-wicket haul at Edgbaston in July 2025 that sealed India’s biggest Test win overseas by runs. But he hasn’t played a Test since. He was recalled for the South Africa series in November, ahead of Prasidh Krishna, but never bowled a ball in either match — India fielded a spin-heavy attack on turning home pitches, and Deep sat out both Tests of a series South Africa won 2-0, statistically the heaviest defeat by margin in Indian men’s Test history.
Harshit Rana debuted in Perth in November 2024, played two Tests, and took 4 wickets at 50.75. He hasn’t played a Test since — well over a year and a half — despite becoming a first-choice white-ball bowler across ODIs and T20Is through 2025 and 2026. India clearly rate him as a limited-overs all-rounder. They just don’t rate him as a Test bowler.
Anshul Kamboj’s arc was even shorter and blunter. Drafted in as injury cover, he debuted at Old Trafford in July 2025 and finished with 1 for 89 off 18 overs. More glaring was his complete lack of pace. He clocked in the low 120s kmph range and did not hit 135 kmph even once, which prompted Ravi Shastri to brand him a “military medium” bowler on air. He was dropped for the very next Test and hasn’t been picked since — one cap, indefinitely.
Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey were both named, alongside Suthar, in India’s squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June — the first time three uncapped bowlers shared a Test squad. Only Suthar played. Brar and Dubey debuted in ODIs instead that same month, Brar taking 3 for 27 against Afghanistan in Dharamsala, but a Test cap still eludes both; Brar’s clearest path into the Sri Lanka XI is Bumrah failing his fitness test.
Saransh’s call-up shows just how fortuitous these openings are. If Sundar recovers in time for the second Test in Colombo, as expected, then his Test career will risk following Kamboj’s script exactly — a cap earned, a chance taken or missed, and no obvious way back in. India have been here before. Mukesh Kumar debuted in 2023 as injury cover for an unfit Shardul Thakur, played three Tests, took seven wickets, and hasn’t worn Test whites since February 2024. At 33, Saransh doesn’t have the luxury of waiting that long.
Doubles standards in WTC pressure
Compare that with how India have handled the unsettled No. 3 batting spot. Karun Nair returned to Test cricket in June 2025, eight years after his last cap, made a duck on his return, but was still kept in the XI for four of the five Tests against England, finishing with 205 runs at 25.62. It wasn’t enough. He was dropped before the West Indies series that October, chief selector Ajit Agarkar noting plainly that India can’t give every batter fifteen or twenty Tests to come good.
Sudharsan’s start was arguably worse — a four-ball duck on debut at Leeds, then two more failures before he was dropped for the second and third Tests. But he was recalled for the fourth Test, made a fifty, and has kept his place in every squad since, through South Africa in November and now Sri Lanka. With age on his side, a batting prospect the team management has decided to back gets multiple series to fail in. No fast bowling debutant since 2024 has been given that leeway.
That caution is a rational response to an irrational incentive. The WTC’s points-percentage table gives every Test immediate weight, and there are no dead rubbers left to blood a player in. Missing the 2025 final after home and away losses to Australia and New Zealand, followed by a second home series defeat to South Africa this past November, has left India needing a serious turnaround for 2027. In that climate, trusting an uncapped bowler over Bumrah, Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav or Washington Sundar feels like too big a gamble — even when, as with Akash Deep against South Africa, the incumbents have just lost.
None of this makes the caps meaningless. Domestic form genuinely gets rewarded — Suthar, Dubey, Saransh, Brar all earned their call-ups. Suthar’s Afghanistan haul was real, tangible and memorable, and so was Deep’s spell at Edgbaston. But the pattern is simple. India’s bowling selection is not a succession plan, just a substitute’s bench of injury replacements, refilled from domestic cricket and emptied again once the established names recover.
India have shown, with Sudharsan, that they know how to build patience into selection for a player they believe in. They just haven’t yet extended it to a bowler. And if Saransh’s window of opportunity closes the way Anshul Kamboj’s and Mukesh Kumar’s did, then few would colour themselves surprised. That pattern will simply have repeated itself in time.
