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On Tuesday, Ajit Agarkar and the selectors announced India’s squad for the upcoming IND vs AFG series, starting on June 4. While the core group stayed mostly the same , three selection calls have ended up stirring up a lot of chatter. Punjab pacer Gurnoor Brar made it into both the ODI and Test squads, whereas Manav Suthar and Harsh Dubey got longer-format call-ups, with Dubey also landing in the ODI set.

After the dip in Ishant Sharma’s role, Team India has been trying to find a tall quick bowler, the kind that can trouble batters with added bounce and speed. It looks like Gurnoor Brar has been on the selectors’ radar for a while. Still, his selection has brought up a few nagging questions.

Why Brar over Auqib Nabi: Brar moved ahead of J&K pacer Auqib Nabi, who said he took 104 wickets across the last two domestic seasons. At the same time, the 6’5” Brar, missed much of Punjab’s 2025-26 Ranji Trophy run , and only managed 27 wickets from seven matches in 2024-25. On paper , the Kashmiri pacer seems to have the better numbers.

Apart from his impressive IND A performance against AUS A, where he grabbed eight wickets, Brar’s domestic numbers don’t really pop all that much. So naturally, it also makes you wonder what exactly the selection team saw in him over Nabi, like on what basis, you know.

Why pick an injury-prone pacer: honestly, not a lot is known out in the open about Brar’s fitness troubles apart from the back fracture he suffered in the 2023-24 season. Still, the doubt lingers, because he has played only 18 first-class matches since he made his debut back in December 2022. India is already dealing with injury concerns involving Akash Deep, and Brar’s own fitness record might end up becoming another headache.

The verdict: Brar could, in time, turn out to be one of the bigger discoveries of the year. The selectors clearly are backing his ceiling and probably see traits beyond the bare statistics. Reports mention that he impressed Shikhar Dhawan while he was operating as a net bowler in IPL 2023, though honestly, a lot of the story behind his rise still feels blurry. This type of selection gamble could either add depth to the squad, or, it could start generating more issues later.

Manav Suthar and Harsh Dubey are both left-arm spin bowling all-rounders, in a way they bring more depth with the bat along with their wicket taking work. Both have shown up quite reliably in domestic cricket, though taking the pair together has sparked that back-and-forth debate, as usual.

Axar ignored again: with someone like Axar Patel still finding it hard to properly settle in India’s Test side, the choice to bring in two kind of similar left-arm spinners, feels a little off. Ravindra Jadeja might have been given a breather, still Axar looked like the more ready backup choice. The all-rounder has bagged 57 wickets in 15 Tests and put up 688 runs at a average of 35.

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Test squad:

Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant, Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Manav Suthar, Gurnoor Brar, Harsh Dubey, Dhruv Jurel.

ODI squad:

Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma (subject to fitness), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (subject to fitness), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, Harsh Dubey.