Virat Kohli was officially ruled out of the upcoming ODI series vs Afghanistan later this month after failing to recover from a hamstring injury and will be replaced by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the squad, chief selector Ajit Agarkar told reporters during a press conference at the BCCI headquarters.
“With Virat, at this point, it’s just been less than a week since he injured himself in the finals. We will assess him (but) we don’t know the timelines yet. Yashasvi will be his replacement. But it looks like he (Kohli) might be fit for that England one-day series (in July) but again, it’s not a definitive answer. So, don’t hold me to it. I haven’t had a clear timeline from the physio yet,” Agarkar said.
Kohli had suffered the injury while playing the Indian Premier League final at Ahmedabad vs Gujarat Titans. He had slammed 75 and was adjudged the man of the match as he guided Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their second IPL title.
Jaiswal, meanwhile, has only played four ODIs since making his debut against England in February 2025. The left-hander had scored a match-winning 116 — his maiden ODI ton — against South Africa at Visakhapatnam.
The three ODIs will be played at Dharamsala, Lucknow and Chennai on June 13, 17 and 20 respectively.
Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said former skipper Rohit Sharma will be heading to the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru where all-rounder Hardik Pandya is nearing completion of his rehabilitation.
“Hardik is in COE Bangalore. He is going to a rehabilitation programme and very soon he will go for the final phase (of recuperation) and will be in the process of clearance,” Saikia said.
Pandya has been named in the ODI squad to face Afghanistan but he was omitted from squads to tour Ireland and England, and for the Asian Games keeping his workload in the 50-over format in mind.
Former skipper Rohit, who also now plays only the one-dayers, too suffered a hamstring injury during the IPL which restricted his appearances for Mumbai Indians to just nine matches this season.
“As far as Rohit is concerned, he is also visiting COE in two or three days’ time. We are following a process for each player who is suffering from any kind of injury and what is the rehabilitation programme.
“They have to be finally cleared from the COE to our technical team here. So, the process is on and we are awaiting their final fitness clearance,” Saikia added.
Updated Indian squad for ODIs against Afghanistan
Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer (vc), KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, Harsh Dubey.
