Team India will miss the services of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya due to injuries in the three-match ODI series vs Afghanistan beginning in Dharamshala on Saturday.
Updated: June 12, 2026, 2:53 PM IST
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Ishan Kishan (left) hasn’t played ODI cricket for Team India since ODI World Cup 2023. (Photo: IANS)
IND vs AFG 2026 1st ODI: Team India are getting ready to play in first game of three-match ODI series against Afghanistan at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Saturday. The home team have been already dealt a double blow with former captain Virat Kohli and all-rounder Hardik Pandya ruled out of the series due to injuries.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s Rajasthan Royals teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal has been selected as replacement for injured Kohli while the BCCI selectors are yet to name anyone to replace Pandya. However, Jaiswal is unlikely to find a place in the Playing 11 for the first ODI as Jharkhand and Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan is set to take Kohli’s place in the side.
Kishan last played ODI cricket for Team India some 976 days back and incidentally it was also against Afghanistan – in the 2023 ODI World Cup match at Arun Jaitley Stadium. The 27-year-old had scored 47 in 47 balls in India’s 8-wicket win back then but hasn’t appeared in any 50-over match since then.
The Jharkhand captain, who was retained for Rs 11.25 crore by Kavya Maran’s SRH ahead of IPL 2026, made a comeback into the Indian team in the T20 World Cup 2026 campaign and scored 317 runs in 9 matches in India’s victorious campaign earlier this year. In IPL 2026 season, Kishan notched up 602 runs in 15 matches with 6 fifties at a strike-rate of 182.42.
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For Saturday’s first ODI match against Afghanistan, Kishan is in line to take up the number three position after skipper Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma in place of Kohli. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter was ruled out of the three-match ODI series due to a hamstring injury.
Following Kohli, Mumbai Indians captain and all-rounder Hardik Pandya was also ruled out of the ODI series with a quadriceps injury. Pandya had reported to BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru to get a fitness certificate after recovering from back spasms but suffered a quadriceps strain while giving fitness test before the ODI series.
The BCCI haven’t named an immediate replacement for Pandya but Kishan’s SRH teammate Nitish Kumar Reddy is expected to take his place in the playing 11 in Dharamshala. Reddy, who was retained for Rs 6 crore by SRH, has played in 4 ODIs and scored 100 runs with 1 fifty and is yet to claim a wicket.
India Predicted Playing 11 vs Afghanistan in 1st ODI
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (C), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh and Prince Yadav
