IND vs AFG Test: Afghanistan’s poor use of DRS in the spotlight against India; After Rahul, Gill and Pant get lifelines on Day 2

Afghanistan’s poor judgement has been in the spotlight during its one-off Test against India in New Chandigarh over the first two days of the contest.

On the opening day, KL Rahul, who went on to score a century, was let off on 16 when the visitors didn’t take a review for a caught behind in the 11th over of the match, bowled by Ziaur Rahman.

The replay confirmed Rahul had edge the ball, but the Afghanistan wicketkeeper, Afsar Zazai, wasn’t convinced enough, leading to skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi opting not to take the DRS.

On the second day, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant were given reprieves off consecutive balls in the 89th over, bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai.

Off the fourth ball of the over, Gill missed a length ball that came into him and was rapped on the knee. While Afghans appealed for lbw, they eventually decided against taking a review. However, Hawk-Eye later revealed the ball would have gone on to hit the top of leg stump. Gill, batting on 108 at that point, was dismissed for 126 by Mohammad Saleem a few overs later.

After Gill was handed a lifeline, Pant got a feather to the wicketkeeper off the very next ball, but the Afghans still didn’t take the review. UltraEdge later confirmed the left-hander had indeed edged the ball that had seamed away from him. Pant added another 27 runs before being dismissed for 81 by Shahidi later in the same session.

To add to its woes, Afghanistan also dropped two catches on the opening day of the Test. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan’s outside edges were spilled by Abdul Malik and Rahmanullah Gurbaz at gully and in the slips, respectively.

Published on Jun 07, 2026