NEW CHANDIGARH – The fourth ball of Manav Suthar’s Test career was the only one that mattered. Abdul Malik, desperate to impose himself on a spinner already generating alarming turn off a good length, moved across his stumps and swatted. The top edge ballooned towards leg, and Mohammed Siraj ran in from backward square to complete the catch as the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium erupted around the young left-armer from Sri Ganganagar. Rishabh Pant sprinted out from behind the stumps first, arms thrown wide.
That moment, just before the tea interval on Day 2, was the snapshot India’s cricket watchers had been waiting to see. Suthar’s debut wicket came on the back of three successive deliveries that beat Malik completely – a first ball that spun past the outside edge, a second that turned square, a third that induced a false stroke. The fourth was identical in trajectory; Malik simply miscalculated the risk.
India ended the post-lunch session commanding the match, their first innings closed on 564 for 8 declared – the second-highest Test total ever compiled against Afghanistan. Captain Shubman Gill, who had extended his overnight century to 126 before being caught behind off Mohammad Saleem Safi in the opening session, had seen enough. Afghanistan, beginning their reply at tea, faced a deficit of 536 runs with 28 for 1 on the board.
The day had begun with Afghanistan pressing hard. Safi, operating at a high pace even after sending down well over 25 overs across the innings, found seam movement with the second new ball. He removed Gill for 126 and Rishabh Pant, dismissed for a duck in the over that followed, leaving India momentarily wobbling at 404 for 5. Azmatullah Omarzai had used Afghanistan’s last review on an earlier unsuccessful appeal against Gill – a miscalculation that left them powerless when stronger cases arose moments later.
Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav steadied India without urgency, resisting Safi’s continued pressure until Kuldeep edged one that completed the pacer’s five-wicket haul. The six-wicket return Safi eventually finished with – 6 for 140 – is, in a match India controlled from the first session of Day 1, either a marker of genuine quality or a consolation statistic against a batting order where every position contributed double-figures. The distinction matters, and the remaining days of this Test may answer it.
Suthar himself batted with the instincts of someone entirely comfortable at this level before his turn with the ball. He struck two sixes off Hashmatullah Shahidi during India’s post-lunch acceleration, forcing the Afghanistan captain to remove himself from the attack, before Safi’s reverse swing ended the cameo. Mohammed Siraj followed with 22 from 12 balls, taking apart left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote before Safi’s straight one shattered his stumps – Siraj’s highest Test score. The declaration came when Washington Sundar flicked Safi past mid-on to bring up a half-century.
What followed after tea was the debut sequence cricket fans watch for. Gill tossed the ball to Suthar in the fifth over, ahead of Kuldeep – a clear expression of where the selectors’ confidence lies. Suthar, whose 129 wickets in 29 first-class matches include a 7 for 49 in the 2024 Duleep Trophy and a five-wicket haul against Australia A in Lucknow earlier this year, had waited long for this opportunity. He toured England with India A, traveled with Gujarat Titans through the IPL, was named in the Central Zone Duleep squad – and bowled not a single competitive ball in any of those assignments. The path from Sri Ganganagar – a town at the northern edge of Rajasthan with a single cricket facility – to an India Test cap had required patience as much as skill.
The conditions at New Chandigarh asked for patience too. Suthar applied it for three balls before Malik’s impatience solved the problem. Kuldeep, who had been the spinner in direct competition for this Test spot, sat in the pavilion watching. As ESPNcricinfo had noted in its match preview, the pair had been considered near-interchangeable selections by the selectors. That framing feels more abstract after today.
Afghanistan’s reply, with 28 for 1 at tea, still needs to be played out. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, promoted to open after Malik’s dismissal, and Sediqullah Atal survived Suthar’s remaining deliveries in that initial burst – Gurbaz offering a thin edge that fell short of slip. India still hold Kuldeep and Washington Sundar in reserve, and the turn Suthar extracted from the New Chandigarh surface, on a good-length ball, suggests an uncomfortable few days ahead for Afghanistan’s batters. India’s dominant first day, when Gill, KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan had all made substantial contributions, already set the terms for what this match is.
The match carries no World Test Championship points, which perhaps explains the modest early attendance – fewer than 1,700 tickets sold before the first day, according to ESPNcricinfo, despite prices starting at 250 rupees. That context makes what Suthar delivered at tea feel more, not less, significant. New Chandigarh was holding its first-ever Test match. The debutant from Rajasthan gave it a moment worth remembering.
Whether Suthar adds to his tally before this Test is done remains the question Afghanistan’s batters will spend the evening quietly dreading. With a deficit of 536 runs and India’s three-spinner combination still to fully unwind, the answer is unlikely to be a comfortable one.
