India squad for Afghanistan series: From Shubman Gill to Shikhar Dhawan, Gurnoor Brar fan club keeps growing

NEW DELHI: At six feet five inches, Gurnoor Brar does not just bowl fast, he bowls from somewhere most batsmen are not prepared to deal with. It’s the bounce he extracts — disconcerting and at pace northwards of 145 kph — that sets him apart from other domestic Indian pacers. On Tuesday, when the selectors announced their squads for the Afghanistan series, the 25-year-old Brar received his maiden callup to both the Test and ODI squads. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar was concise about his selection.“With Gurnoor, we have seen a lot of promise over the last season and a half. He is a tall guy who can bowl at pace,” Agarkar said. The story of how Brar got here has several chapters and most of them involve someone more famous noticing him first.The earliest is Shubman Gill, the current captain of the Indian Test and ODI side. Their acquaintance stretches back to U-19 cricket and the Katoch Shield (Punjab’s multi-day inter-district tournament) thereafter.“I used to bowl to him since our U-19 days,” Brar, who hails from Kheo Wali village in Punjab’s Sri Muktsar Sahib district, recalled. “He saw me bowling and helped me get into the district team. I played for Mohali and was then picked for the Punjab U-23 side.”Then came Shikhar Dhawan. The former India opener, in his time as the captain of IPL side Punjab Kings, encountered Brar in the nets and came away with the honest assessment that the boy was the real thing. And then, most recently, Ashish Nehra. Gujarat Titans paid Rs 1.3 crore for Brar in the 2025 IPL auction and Nehra — the head coach of the franchise — started working with him. “It’s always been a dream to play Tests for India. There’s nothing quite like the stature of the format. I try to make the most of my strengths. I keep it simple. I hit the hard length, move it away, and let the bounce that I get do the rest,” Brar said.A regular in the India ‘A’ set-up since September 2025, Gurnoor has 52 wickets to his name from 18 first-class outings. But the most telling detail, the one that separates Brar from merely a good domestic bowler who happens to be tall, was his summons to the Chepauk nets ahead of India’s home Test against Bangladesh last year. The team management wanted someone who could replicate what Nahid Rana does — the steep bounce from a tall frame. Brar went in and made some of India’s best batters uncomfortable.