Shubman Gill played some of his favorite shots straight down the ground and he was perfectly supported by former vice-captain Rishabh Pant who also scored a half-century by the time day 1 came to an end
Published: June 6, 2026, 6:34 PM IST
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India’s captain Shubman Gill celebrates his century during the first day of the one-off Test match between India and Afghanistan in New Chandigarh on Saturday, June 06, 2026. (Photo: IANS)
In-form Indian skipper Shubman Gill wasted no time to get going as he smacked a spectacular century upon his his return to Test cricket in the unofficial one-off Test match against Afghanistan at the PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh. His 103 off 143 balls helped the hosts finish at 368/3 after 85 overs at stumps on day 1.
Shubman Gill arrived at the crease after the departure of another centurion KL Rahul who scored his first century as the newly appointed Test vice-captain. Although Rahul remained quite unfortunate to not have extended his 165-ball 100 into something bigger, his knock helped India the tone perfectly for the rest of the day.
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But the manner in which Gill batted today, it seemed like the Indian captain was playing a practice game. The languid approach and the lazy elegance was on view as he held an already tired Afghan attack by the scruff of its neck, hitting 11 fours and a straight six. In his 41st Test, the Indian skipper now has 11 centuries.
Shubman Gill played some of his favorite shots straight down the ground and he was perfectly supported by former vice-captain Rishabh Pant who also scored a half-century by the time day 1 came to an end. Gill and Pant stitched 121 runs together and added more problems to the already miserable bowling attack of Afghanistan.
The visitors’ main problem was their spin attack. With their top three world class spinners choosing to be gun for hire in T20 leagues across the world, the ones picked for this game, left-arm spinner Kharote (0/95 in 20 overs) and off-spinner Abdul Malik (0/37 in 6 overs) simply didn’t have the skills to stop the Indian batters.
They didn’t go on a carnage but yet found ways to hit boundaries with alarming frequency with 42 fours and 4 sixes hit on the day. For India, in an overall successful day 1, there were a few misses in the forms of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan as both of them failed to capitalize on their positive starts.
While Jaiswal had quite an off-day, comparatively, getting out for just 24, Sudharsan missed out on what could have been a 3rd century by an Indian batter on day 1. The left-hand batter, coming on the back of a high scoring Indian Premier League 2026 season, looked solid but a late decision to extend his arms for a cover drive led to his departure for 81 off 104. Mohammad Salee was Afghanistan’s best bowler with figures of 67/2 in 13 overs.
Team India had batted first after winning the toss. Day 2 will begin from 9:30AM (IST) onwards.
(With inputs from PTI)
