Team India: Team India recently faced a 0-2 defeat in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. After playing the ODI series against Sri Lanka, Team India will play a series of 2 Tests and 3 T20 matches against its neighbouring country Bangladesh on Indian soil. Team India will play its next series with another neighbouring country of India, Afghanistan, in June 2026.

As per the schedule, Team India will play a Test match against Afghanistan in the month of June 2026. Earlier, the only Test match between Team India and Afghanistan (IND VS AFG) was played in the year 2018.

In such a situation, the selection committee can give the captaincy of the team to Rituraj Gaikwad in the Test match against Afghanistan after 8 years, while the team can decide to include Arjun Tendulkar and Samit Dravid in the squad.

Afghanistan will visit India in June 2026

Team India played a series of 3 T20 matches against the Afghanistan team in January 2024. In which Team India won the T20 series 3-0 under the leadership of captain Rohit Sharma. After playing the T20 series in 2024, the Afghanistan team will come to India in 2026 and play a series of 1 Test and 3 ODI matches.

Rituraj can become the captain in the test against Afghanistan

Rituraj Gaikwad may get the responsibility of captaining Team India in the only Test match against Afghanistan in the year 2026. Talking about the captaincy of Rituraj Gaikwad, under his leadership, Team India won the gold medal in the Asian Games 2023.

In such a situation, it is believed that in the test match against Afghanistan, instead of giving chance to the players who are consistently playing for the team, the selection can give chance to the players who are consistently performing well in domestic cricket and hand over the responsibility of captaincy to Rituraj Gaikwad.

Arjun and Samit Dravid may get a chance against Afghanistan

In the only Test match against Afghanistan, the selection committee can give a chance to Arjun Tendulkar and Samit Dravid in the team squad.

Both these young players can get a chance in the Afghanistan T20 series only when these players perform consistently in domestic cricket. If this happens, then the selection committee can include both these players in the team squad for Test cricket.

Team India's probable team squad for Afghanistan Test

Rituraj Gaikwad (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hanuma Vihari, Riyan Parag, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Pradosh Ranjan Paul (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Saurabh Kumar, Samit Dravid, Arjun Tendulkar, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and T Natarajan