Indian agriculture has undergone many transformations; one of them is becoming an exporter of agricultural products from food importers after independence. Today, India’s agriculture can produce a surplus, ensure food security and export to other countries. Overall, India is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cereals, and the second-largest producer of rice and wheat. Past studies have analysed the comparative advantage of agricultural commodities using RCA as the primary tool. This approach faces significant limitations and yields biased and inconsistent results. The current study aimed to analyse the comparative advantages of the rice and wheat cereal trade. The study utilised secondary data from the World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS) database from 2001 to 2023. We incorporated the compound annual growth rate (CAGR), coefficient of variation (CV), and Cuddy-Della’s Instability Index for growth and variation in cereal exports. Furthermore, we have incorporated RCA for comparative advantage and NRCA to address the limitations of RCA. The study also employed an RC measure to ensure that the import was included in the analysis. The overall comparative advantage of cereals is resilient only due to the dominance of rice exports, whereas wheat exports contribute negligibly. Rice had higher RCA and NRCA scores and stable RC scores over the years. In contrast, wheat exports fluctuate widely. Wheat is susceptible to price fluctuations, domestic supply, and frequent quantitative export restrictions. India’s evolving agricultural export basket focuses on products with stable demand and competitive advantages, ensuring that rice remains a pillar of its agricultural exports while navigating the complexities of wheat export growth.