India to face Afghanistan, one-off Test match begins today:Shubman Gill’s team aims for new combination against spin-heavy Afghans

The Indian cricket team will play a Test match after about 8 months. Shubman Gill and his team will face Afghanistan in a one-off Test match from Friday. This match will be played from 9:30 AM at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in Mullanpur. After two and a half months of IPL frenzy, the focus shifts to red-ball cricket as India look to prepare for the bigger tests that lie ahead. In this match, Afghan spinners will also test the skills of Indian batters. Apart from KL Rahul, no one has played 50 matches in the current team, and he remains the only survivor from the last match between India and Afghanistan in 2018. In the previous series, Team India was clean-swept 2-0 by South Africa. Indian batters were seen struggling against spin on the pitches of Kolkata and Guwahati. The Afghanistan Test match is not part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle; therefore, it will allow Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir to experiment with the team for the future Test matches, including a two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in August. Sai Sudharsan to continue at no. 3 In the pre-match press conference before the one-off contest, coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed that Sai Sudharsan will bat at no. 3. Devdutt Padikkal was another choice, but Gambhir has said that Padikkal will get his chances. Who will take over Jadeja’s responsibility? Ravindra Jadeja has been rested. In such a situation, the question is who will take over his responsibility. The captain has options like Rajasthan’s Manav Suthar and Vidarbha’s Harsh Dubey. Suthar is impressing with his traditional left-arm spin, while Dubey has the ability to contribute with both bat and ball. India has a 100% win record India holds a 100% win record against Afghanistan. However, only one match has been played between the two, which was played in 2018 at the Bengaluru ground. This was also Afghanistan’s first Test match as a full-member nation. Talking about the overall Test record… Gill and Rahul in form, Siraj top wicket-taker Indian captain Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Yashasvi Jaiswal are in good form. Gill has scored 983 runs in 9 matches since January 1, 2025. Meanwhile, Rahul has 813 runs in 10 matches, and Yashasvi Jaiswal has 745 runs in 10 matches. During this period, Mohammed Siraj has taken the most wickets. Kuldeep Yadav, who is part of the squad, has also taken 20 wickets. Rahmat top-scorer, Rashid leading wicket-taker Since Afghanistan started playing Test cricket, Rahmat Shah has become the team’s top run scorer. He scored 970 runs in 11 matches, whereas, Rashid Khan has the most wickets at 45 in 6 games. Rashid will not play in the one-off Test against India. Mullanpur Stadium to host first-ever Test The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, will host a Test match for the first time. So far, 2 ODIs and one T20 match have been played here. Weather can also be an important factor in the match. The heat here will test the players. During training, many players had to use vehicles even to get from the main ground to the nets. There is no chance of rain here for the next 5 days.