India announce squad for T20I series against Afghanistan
Four players' participation, including Bumrah, subject to fitness clearance from BCCI's Centre of Excellence
MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced a full-strength 15-member squad for their away T20I series against Afghanistan, scheduled to be played in New Delhi from September 13 to 17.
For the series, all three matches of which are set to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on September 13, 15 and 17, respectively, India made a total of eight changes to their squad that secured a 3-0 whitewash away against Zimbabwe in July.
The newly-unveiled squad marked the return of ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, whose last appearance in the format came at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 final against New Zealand in March this year.
Besides Bumrah, who missed the third ODI in England and the recent two-match away series against Sri Lanka due to a recurring left-knee injury, India also brought in Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana, all of whose participation in the Afghanistan series is subject to clearance from the BCCI's Centre of Excellence.
Notably, both Rana and Sundar had suffered hamstring injuries during the England tour, while Reddy had injured his quadriceps during the ODI series against Afghanistan in June this year.
Furthermore, the reigning world champions also brought back Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel, alongside mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who suffered a hamstring injury during the T20I series against England and was subsequently withdrawn from the Men in Blue's Zimbabwe tour.
Meanwhile, Rinku Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Ashok Sharma, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav and Yash Thakur have all been left out of the India squad that registered a clean sweep in Zimbabwe.
India squad for T20I series against Afghanistan
Shreyas Iyer (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
*Subject to fitness clearance
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