Ind vs Afg: Shubman Gill wins the toss and elects to bat first

Shubman Gill (Pic: AFP)

Shubman Gill won the toss and elected to bat first in the one-off Test match at New Chandigarh.

After winning the toss, Shubman Gill said he would like to bat first. The skipper confirmed a debut for spinner Manav Suthar.

"We're going to bat first. Very hot and humid here, so I think as the time goes by, the wicket is going to get slower and it's going to get low. Looks like a good surface. I think a little bit drier, obviously because of the heat. It's been very hot for the past few weeks here and I think it's going to stay the same. (How does it feel to be captaining on home turf for the first time?) Very special. Obviously I grew up not far from here. Grew up playing here and always wanted to play in my hometown. So I think it's a great privilege and honour to be able to captain my country for the first time here at my home ground. (On the switch from T20s to Test cricket) The preparation's been pretty good. Honestly, the only thing that's been a little tricky is the switch from sleeping late at nights to waking up at the time actually that we were sleeping at. But got a good couple of days of sleep and I think everyone's pretty fresh and ready to go. We've got Manav Suthar making his debut for the first time." Shubman Gill said.

Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi admitted that he would have liked to bat first too.

"To be honest, we wanted to bat as well because the wicket looks good. But anyhow, toss is not in our hands. We need to play good cricket and we need to start very well. (What are you looking to get out of this Test?) Well, as you said, that we don't get enough chances playing Test cricket. But yeah, we are ready for the challenge and we always accept challenge. We like challenges and this is the new challenge for us. We are well prepared for this game and we had a good preparation camp in Jalalabad in Kabul. So, looking forward now and very excited for the game. We have three seamers and two spinning combinations, we have one debutant - Nangeyalia Kharote."

Confirmed playing XI for both teams:

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Afsar Zazai(w), Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Nangeyalia Kharote, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, Mohammad Saleem Safi

India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna