KL Rahul clearly appeared to nick the ball with an outside edge but the Afghans, poor with their judgement, were surrounded with uncertainty on whether they should go against the on-field Umpire’s decision or not
Published: June 6, 2026, 1:17 PM IST
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KL Rahul during the one-off Test’s day 1 against Afghanistan. (Image credits: Screengrab)
Indian opening batter KL Rahul was given a major lifeline by Afghanistan on day 1 of the one-off Test match at the PCA Stadium in Mullanpur. Rahul opened alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal after India won the toss and chose to bat first on a bright sunny day.
KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal got off to a very good start in Mullanpur but the latter’s innings was shortened by Saleem Safi in the 12th over for just 24. In fact, Afghanistan could have actually send both the openers back to the pavilion in the space of just 6 deliveries if they had taken a review against Rahul in the previous over.
It unfolded when Afghani pacer Ziaur Rahman Sharifi came charging in with a pacey delivery outstide off-stump. KL Rahul clearly appeared to nick the ball with an outside edge but the Afghans, poor with their judgement, were surrounded with uncertainty on whether they should go against the on-field Umpire’s decision or not.
Afghanistan had setup an outstanding trap to get KL Rahul out by consistently pitching the ball outside off-stump, prompting the Indian opener to free his arms but once he did, the Afghans failed to make the most out of it.
Rahul confused the AFG team and made them believe it was his bat’s sound. Well Played Rahul 👏 https://t.co/enVYHa7AKe pic.twitter.com/OaWR4MrhLu
— Varun (@The_MythBreaker) June 6, 2026
After Rahul’s attempted cut short took a slight outside edge and went into the wicket-keeper’s hands, Afghanistan made a strong appeal but the Umpire did not seem convinced. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, subsequently, asked his captain Hasmatullah Shahidi to take the review but the latter wasn’t sure either.
When the replay was shown on the big screen, snicko confirmed that there was a huge spike when the ball went past KL Rahul’s bat. The Afghanistan players were in major disbelief after letting Rahul get away with it.
KL Rahul punishes Afghanistan with half-century
After receiving the lifeline, KL Rahul went on to score his 21st half-century and first of this one-off Test match. As a matter of fact, the last time Rahul scored a fifty in the 1st innings of a home Test was also against Afghanistan back in 2018.
The elegant right-hand batter has looked absolutely superior with his stroke-making, playing some beautiful cover and straight drives to help India gain momentum early on in day 1. At the time of writing, was batting at 63 off 108 alongside India’s new number 3 Sai Sudharsan.
IND Vs AFG, One-off Test: Playing XIs
India: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Afghanistan: Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Afsar Zazai (WK), Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Nangeyalia Kharote, Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, Mohammad Saleem Safi.
