Two Captains. Two Centuries. One Totally One-Sided Test Match. India Have Made Afghanistan Look Very Small In New Chandigarh.

 

There is a version of this match that was always going to happen. Two teams separated by the full width of Test cricket's development curve, meeting in a one-off game at a ground still establishing itself on the international map, in extreme heat that was always going to favour the team with the deeper batting resources and the more experienced bowling attack.

That version arrived precisely on schedule at Mullanpur's HPCA Stadium in New Chandigarh. And if anyone was surprised by what unfolded across two days, they have not been paying close enough attention to the distance between these two teams in the longest format.

India declared at 571 for 8. KL Rahul scored a century in his first Test innings as a non-captain — 100 off 164 balls, calm and controlled, the innings of a batter who has been in this situation so many times that the pressure of an international Test match feels, to him, like background noise. Shubman Gill, batting as captain for only the second time in home Tests, made 169 — his highest score as India's Test leader, a innings that began with the composure of a hundred and ended with the aggression of a batter who had decided the declaration could not come soon enough. Sai Sudharsan made 81. Rishabh Pant made 50 not out off 58 balls and looked like a man who had not been away from Test cricket for a single day.

Afghanistan, in reply, are 113 for 5. The lead is 458 runs. The match will end when India's bowlers decide it should end — and on the evidence of the first two days at New Chandigarh, that decision is not far away.

Pakistan Have Lost 12 Of Their Last 16 Tests. They Just Lost To Bangladesh Again. And Nobody Seems To Know How To Stop It.

 

There is a line that ESPNcricinfo — the most widely read cricket website in the world — published this week that stopped a lot of people in their tracks.

"The 1960s were wretched for Pakistan. The late 2000s awful. Right now might be worst of all."

Read that again. Not a social media account. Not an angry fan. ESPNcricinfo. The publication that covers cricket more carefully and more thoroughly than any other. And their verdict on Pakistan cricket in 2026 is that it might be the lowest point in the country's entire Test history.

It is a sentence that deserves to be taken seriously. Because the numbers behind it are not exaggerated. They are simply the record.

Since Shan Masood took over as Pakistan's Test captain in late 2023, Pakistan have won four matches and lost twelve in sixteen Tests. Twelve losses. In sixteen matches. A win percentage of 25 percent. The second-highest number of defeats for any Pakistan captain — and Masood has done it in far fewer matches than the only man ahead of him on that list.

They have been bowled out for 146 at home against Bangladesh. They lost a home series to England 3-0. They were whitewashed 3-0 in Australia. They lost in South Africa despite having the game in their hands multiple times. And last week, in Sylhet, they became the first Pakistan team in history to lose a Test series in Bangladesh — 2-0, the same scoreline that started all of this in Rawalpindi in 2024.

The same mistakes. The same collapses. The same post-match press conferences where the captain says the right things and nothing changes. That is the Pakistan Test cricket story of 2026. And it is getting harder and harder to find a reason to believe it is going to get better any time soon.

Pakistan Are Running Out of Time — And Bangladesh Know Exactly What They Are Doing

 

There are Test matches where you can feel the momentum shifting. And then there are Test matches where the momentum stopped shifting a long time ago — where one team has settled into a position of such complete control that the only question left is not who wins, but by how much.

The 2nd Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan in Sylhet is firmly in the second category.

Day 3, session 1. Bangladesh batting in their second innings. Lead already past 249 runs at lunch. Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim — two of the most experienced batters in Bangladesh's history — together at the crease, adding runs with the calm authority of men who know exactly what they are building toward. Pakistan's bowlers working hard, getting little in return.

This is not where Pakistan wanted to be. Not after the first Test. Not after this series. Not ever.