Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli return for Afghanistan T20Is

Returning to the shortest format, Rohit Sharma is set to captain India for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, BCCI announced on Sunday, January 7. Virat Kohli is returning as well, with both lynchpins having last played against England at the Adelaide Oval during the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal in Australia.

Interestingly, Jitesh Sharma and Sanju Samson have been picked as the two wicketkeeping resources in what is India’s last T20I assignment ahead of the 2024 World Cup.

Apart from Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, who are both nursing injuries, several frontline players including Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj haven’t been named in the side to face Afghanistan.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.