Welcome to the coverage of the one-off Test between India and Afghanistan at the New International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh, Mullanpur, on Saturday.
Battling demons of a horrendous home Test run in the not-so-distant past but nevertheless a formidable unit, India are pitted against a plucky Afghanistan in the only Test, that might help the hosts figure out a balanced combination.
In 2018, Afghanistan lost 10 wickets in a session between lunch and tea on the second day of the Test against India. The next 10 fell by the wayside between tea and end of day's play which also was end of the game.
However, the Indians would not have forgotten the 0-2 drubbing handed by a meticulously prepared South Africa last year and would do well to not take the opposition lightly despite the gulf in experience.
A stable No.3 and Ravindra Jadeja's potential successor in red ball cricket are the two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shubman Gill will like to fix during this game before the important two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in August.
Whether Sai Sudharsan is persisted with, or the stylish Devdutt Padikkal gets to add to his tally of two games, will also be a major decision for the Indian team management during this game.
There is not much to choose between the two youngsters and a good score against this Afghan bowling attack wouldn't be an indicator of how things will pan out against better teams.
Jadeja has been rested for this match but this is a fact that the Indian selectors and team management are trying to look at options to prepare themselves for life beyond the Rajkot all-rounder.
The reason for this search is his bowling form, which has deteriorated considerably and he hasn't been as incisive as the team management would have liked.
The choice is now between a classical slow left-arm orthodox bowler from Rajasthan named Manav Suthar and the more utility 'bits and pieces' Vidarbha cricketer Harsh Dubey.
Since Afghanistan's first ever Test against India in 2018 in Bengaluru, which the hosts won inside two days, it has played 11 more games till June 2026.
And India, in this same period, have played 67 Tests with Rishabh Pant alone being a part of 49 of them. Incidentally Pant hadn't yet made his Test debut when Afghanistan last played India.
From the 2018 squad, only KL Rahul is a part of this current Indian Test team while Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and batter Rahmat Shah were also the ones who played that game.
Afghanistan's entire batting line-up has a combined total of nine Test tons compared to the 39 that this new-look Indian team has logged.
