After the completion of another season of the Indian Premier League, the Indian cricketing sphere has moved towards international games. In their first assignment following the IPL 2026, the Men in Blue hosted Afghanistan in a one-off Test starting on June 6 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Chandigarh. India entered the game with their full-fledged Test team under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, apart from names such as Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

This is for the first time in 15 years that India have fielded a home Test XI without either R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja. The previous instance came against New Zealand in Nagpur in November 2010, and since then, one of the two had featured in all 69 of India’s home Tests. However, with the game, Manav Suthar of Rajasthan, a spin-bowling all-rounder made his Test debut for India after being named in the playing XI.

Suthar received his maiden Test cap from Kuldeep Yadav and entered the international side after playing 29 first-class matches, with 129 wickets. Notably, with his inclusion, Suthar became the first specialist spin Test debutant since Axar Patel in 2021.

Who is Manav Suthar? Rajasthan all-rounder who made Test debut against Afghanistan

Suthar, born in Sri Ganganagar of Rajasthan, plays for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL. He has featured in 29 FC matches and has taken 129 wickets at an average of 25.76, along with scoring 945 runs at an average of 25.65. Notably, he played only three matches for his Ranji team last season and took 18 wickets, including an eight-wicket haul against Chattisgarh. In addition to it, he scored 120 runs and picked seven wickets against Himachal Pradesh in the same season.

Moreover, Suthar has also recorded eight wickets in an un-official Test match against Australia A, and finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker during the game. He also recorded an excellent campaign in the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

This is how the playing XI look like for both teams in One-Off Test in Mullanpur.

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Afsar Zazai(w), Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Nangeyalia Kharote, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, Mohammad Saleem Safi

India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna