Ajit Agarkar and Devajit Saikia unveiled bold India squads with debutants, heartbreaks and a big Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hint.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Test and ODI squads for the upcoming contests against Afghanistan. India will play a one-off Test match against Afghanistan, starting June 6at the PCA New Stadium in Tira. This game will not be part of the ongoing World Test Championship cycle. The visitors will also stay back for a three-match ODI series against India, to be held between June 14 and 20 in Dharamsala, Lucknow, and Chennai, respectively.

Chief selectors Ajit Agarkar and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia named the two squads after a two-hour meeting in Guwahati. While the announcement saw numerous young faces earn maiden call-ups, there were a few disappointments and heartbreaks, along with an unmissable remark about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Here are Agarkar’s five major selection calls –
No Mohammed Shami: The senior fast bowler has not played for India since the 2025 Champions Trophy, which was an ODI tournament. In Tests, the timeline stretches back further to 2023. He struggled with an injury after the 2023 ODI World Cup that sidelined him across formats. He waited. He recovered. But the selectors reckoned he wasn’t ready yet. He sought the domestic route, but injury derailed him yet again in 2024, before a comeback to the ODI squad in early 2025. Shami returned to the domestic grind, picking 47 wickets in 16 matches across the 2025/26 season, including 20 in the Ranji Trophy, 16 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and 11 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. But those numbers still did not convince the selectors. In fact, by Agarkar’s own admission, he never came up in discussion for a spot in the one-off Test against Afghanistan.

“As far as we have been told that at this point…his body is allowing him to play, I know he has played a domestic season this season. But from the information that I have got, it’s T20 cricket that he’s ready for. So there was no discussion regarding him,” he said during the virtual presser on Tuesday.

Pant demoted: Rishabh Pant perhaps received the most brutal blow after the announcement. Not only was he stripped of vice-captaincy in Test cricket, but he also lost his spot in the ODI squad. While KL Rahul took over the role in Test cricket, Ishan Kishan was handed Pant’s spot in ODIs.