India-Afghanistan To Play First Test At Mullanpur, All Eyes On Rashid Khan

The home international season (2026-2027) is set to start with a one-off Test against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh (Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA Stadium at Mullanpur) from June 6 to 10. Strangely though, it will be the only Test Shubman Gill’s team will play this year, and it will not be part of the new ICC World Test Championship cycle. India’s next Test programme is in Sri Lanka in August and in New Zealand in October-November, both included in the WTC programme. It will be Mullanpur’s debut Test and what’s of interest is the kind of surface India will prefer against an attack that will be led by leg-spin googly bowler Rashid Khan who took 11 wickets against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in January 2025. Khan has 5 x5 wicket hauls including 2 x 7s and 1x 6 and has win four Tests for his side. Eight years ago, India won the only Test played against Afghanistan hands down, and Rashid was not a real force then in multi-day Tests, but the canny leg-spinner is experienced now, though not by much — 6 Tests and 45 wickets. India came a cropper to the spinners in the last two home series against New Zealand and South Africa and lost all five Tests, preparing turning tracks. India were all at sea against the Kiwi left-arm spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel and the South African offy Simon Harmer. Rohit Sharma was the captain who lost 0-3 and Gill was the captain against South Africa. It’s not known whether off spinner Allah Ghazanfar will be part of the Afghanistan team, but on a turning surface, Rashid Khan could prove to be a handful to deal with support from Ghazanfar.