For four days in a row, Richard Pybus fronted the media as Afghanistan’s representative, the new head coach repeatedly invoking ‘naivete’ and ‘extreme rustiness’ to wish away their terrible hammering at the hands of India in New Chandigarh. One-off Tests usually don’t throw up too many takeaways, but there was an obvious one – Afghanistan have a long way to go before they can even dream of hoping to push the bigger boys.
But what of India? What did Shubman Gill and his boys achieve, beyond an expected pummelling of their overmatched visitors, who rolled over well inside three days by an innings and 300 runs? What are the tangible gains from this standalone fixture, a rare stretch of red-ball cricket at home in a calendar year overrun by white-ball internationals?
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Off the field, India (read, the BCCI) have the gratitude of the Afghan cricket board – gratitude for getting a rare Test match on Indian soil, for the opportunity to take on one of the biggest draw cards in world cricket. Gratitude and goodwill count for a lot in these troubled times, so there is that gain, however amorphous it might appear.
The match allowed India to gently ease a 31st Test venue in the country into existence. The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium is a lovely facility which has benefited from an apparent change in BCCI thinking. In the past, no match was allowed for a fortnight before an international fixture; this stadium in New Chandigarh hosted IPL matches on May 27 (Eliminator) and May 29 (Qualifier 2) before the Test began on June 6, so like the rotational policy, the board has given its own diktat the go by, it would appear.
On the field, the most visible positive was the promise and potential shown by Manav Suthar, the 23-year-old left-arm spinner. India haven’t had to hunt around for a spin option for a while now, such has been the monopoly of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, with Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel often stepping in as support acts. But now that Ashwin has retired and Jadeja is 37, Axar has become a fringe red-ball player and Kuldeep doesn’t inspire the same confidence as previously, there is a pressing need to unearth more long-term alternatives.
India will take Suthar, for now!
Suthar looms, on first view, as one of those alternatives. His has been a structured progress through the ranks, from the age-group and Emerging levels to India ‘A’ and now the national side. Strong in basics, the tall lad from Rajasthan isn’t a show pony. His no-frills approach is characterised by metronomic accuracy and the ability to extract whatever little purchase is available. He did reveal heartening pockets of drift. With time, more gametime and a greater understanding of his own strengths and weaknesses, he will become more situationally aware.
To assert with any certainty on the evidence of what we have seen over the last two days that Suthar is here to stay will be, to misquote Pybus, ‘naïve.’ Impressive as he was with his control, Suthar is clearly a work in progress, but the think-tank will be encouraged by his stirring debut, during the course of which he became only the fourth Indian to take six or more wickets in his first Test innings.
Also praiseworthy was Washington Sundar’s all-round performance. Yo-yoed in the batting order and sent in at No. 7 this time, he eased to an eye-catching half-century and followed it up with four wickets in the second innings with clever yet subtle variations. Washington is a great asset in all conditions because of his versatility with the bat and consistency with the ball; that he fell into an immediate rhythm despite sending down just 53 balls in the whole of IPL 2026 speaks to his ability to adjust on the fly.
India’s batting flexed its not inconsiderable muscle, with batting coach Sitanshu Kotak acknowledging that they had certain boxes to tick in the aftermath of the 0-2 series loss to South Africa in November. Without going into details, he conceded obliquely that batting against spin had been a problem area, an anomaly they must correct before heading to Sri Lanka in August. Afghanistan didn’t have the most threatening spin attack – Rashid Khan is on a break from Test cricket and lead spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf didn’t bowl a single ball of left-arm spin after contracting a leg injury on day one – and therefore it is hard to read too much into a tally of 564 marked by centuries for the captain and his deputy, KL Rahul, and 81 apiece for Sai Sudharsan and Rishabh Pant. But Kotak expressed satisfaction at a job well done and we must accept that at face value, at least until Sri Lanka and whatever lies in store proves otherwise.
