India face Afghans with eye on away Tests in Sri Lanka and NZ

Coach Gautam Gambhir

More than six months after suffering their heaviest Test defeat, India will renew their acquaintance with the red-ball format through a one-off Test against Afghanistan, starting on Saturday when the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium will go into the history books as the country's 31st Test venue.

Beaten by a massive 408 runs by South Africa in November in Guwahati's debut as a Test centre, India will hope for gladder tidings in a match outside the ambit of the World Test Championship. For the only home Test this calendar year, India have rested the storied bowling duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, as much to keep them fresh for the nine Tests in store between August and March as to try out other options, primary among them one of the uncapped left-arm spin pair of Manav Suthar or Harsh Dubey.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed on Friday that Sai Sudharsan will continue to occupy the No. 3 slot, which means Karnataka skipper Devdutt Padikkal must wait to add to his tally of two Test caps. Sudharsan has had a patchy run in the five-day game, even if six appearances aren't a huge sample size. He is coming off another stirring run for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2026 and must capitalise on this show of faith as India gear up for away Tests in Sri Lanka in August and New Zealand in November-December.

India need a string of victories in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and in the five-match home showdown against Australia early next year, to reignite their WTC designs. While they will take nothing for granted against Hashmatullah Shahidi's men, who will be without national hero Rashid Khan, they will use this game to try things out with the Sri Lanka tour in mind. One of those is how Suthar or Dubey stands up to the challenge of international cricket. The other could revolve around a toss-up between Dhruv Jurel, as a specialist No. 6, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, the all-rounder who failed to build on his Boxing Day Test ton in 2024.

Rishabh Pant, stripped of the Test vice-captaincy, will be desperate to shake off a disappointing few days - he no longer leads Lucknow Super Giants - with a statement knock in his 50th Test. Afghanistan's aspirations will centre around more than stretching the match to a third day, which they failed to do in Bengaluru eight years back.

One
No of Test matches played between India and Afghanistan - in 2018 at Bengaluru