'Just incredibly rusty' - Afghanistan's Test of what-ifs

After Afghanistan lost the one-off Test against India in New Chandigarh by an innings and 300 runs, their head coach Richard Pybus invoked Murphy's law: "What could go wrong did go wrong."

Ahead of the Test, both Pybus and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi were confident of a much better showing compared to Afghanistan's inaugural Test against the same opponents in 2018. Afghanistan had lost that Test inside two days. This one stretched into the third evening but ended with a heavier margin of defeat.

Pybus' blunt assessment was not off the mark, and Afghanistan will look back at this Test as a series of what-ifs. Not that any of it would have changed the result, but it could have helped them put up a better fight.

Team selection and Ashraf's injury

It began with the team selection. On the eve of the match, Pybus said he expected the oppressive heat to suck the moisture out of the pitch fairly quickly, thus bringing spinners into the game early on. Still, Afghanistan went in with three seamers and just two frontline spinners, one of whom was a debutant.

The other, Sharafuddin Ashraf, the leading wicket-taker of the 2025 Ahmad Shah Abdali Trophy, injured his groin on the first afternoon and didn't bowl at all in the Test. "You come to India and then you end up playing them with ten men before we have bowled a ball really," Pybus lamented.

That left Afghanistan severely handicapped in punishing conditions on a pitch offering little for the seamers. Mohammad Saleem, playing only his second Test, was the only silver lining. Though he went for 5.18 per over, he picked up 6 for 140, earning respect even from the Indian camp.

Reluctance in using DRS

Afghanistan made one blunder after another when it came to using the DRS. On the opening day of the Test, KL Rahul was on 16 when he edged behind off Ziaur Rahman. Umpire Sharfuddoula, though, did not give it out, and Afghanistan did not have the conviction to review it. Rahul went on to score 100.

The same reluctance repeated twice on the second day, this time off back-to-back deliveries from Azmatullah Omarzai. Shubman Gill should have been lbw and Rishabh Pant caught behind, but Afghanistan didn't challenge Sharfuddoula's calls.

Poor shot selection

Afghanistan's batters also showed their naivety under pressure. Across the two innings, Afghanistan faced four end-of-the-session overs. In three of them, they lost a wicket. On two of those occasions, the batters were guilty of throwing their wicket away.

On Saturday, in the last over before tea, opener Abdul Malik survived three deliveries from debutant left-arm spinner Manav Suthar before top-edging a sweep to short fine leg on the fourth.

"If he was playing all over again, maybe it's the stroke that he wouldn't have played," Pybus said. "It is about us understanding situationally and playing the context. You can see there's a bit of anxiety there."

The other opener, Sediqullah Atal, made the same mistake on Monday. After defending well against Washington Sundar in the final over before tea, he attempted to clear mid-off off the last delivery, only to miscue it to point as the ball turned away from him.

Earlier, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah had fallen to ambitious aerial shots. When asked about the thinking behind the approach, Pybus said: "After the first innings, where I felt we allowed the Indian spinners to bowl to us and control length, I wanted us to play with more intent, and not allow them to dictate terms.

"I think the players need to understand the balance between offence and defence. We won some mini-battles and then we showed our naivety. We put the field back and then instead of using the space we had created, the players didn't read the situation well enough.

"So that's going to be part of the learning curve - from being too passive in the first innings and allowing the spinners to dictate the game to being possibly too offensive at times."

Lack of game time

Before the New Chandigarh Test, Afghanistan's last red-ball fixture was in October 2025, against Zimbabwe in Harare. In fact, since making their Test debut in 2018, they have played just 13 Tests in eight years. Pybus said the lack of fixtures not only affected them in this match but is also a hindrance to their growth as a Test nation.