Star opening batter and former India captain Rohit Sharma is likely to miss the upcoming One-Day International (ODI) series against Afghanistan. Rohit, who injured his hamstring during the recent IPL 2026 while playing for the Mumbai Indians, was included in the squad for the three-match series, but his inclusion in the side was subject to fitness. Now, it seems that Rohit has failed to clear the fitness test.
The Indian dressing room is also awaiting the results from the fitness clearance test of star all-rounder Hardik Pandya. The senior cricketer had endured a back spasm during the IPL season and had recently checked in to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, where he is being assessed by the medical team. He is expected to prove fitness through match simulations and other drills before joining the team.
This is a major blow to the Indian team, as they are already going to miss the services of Virat Kohli, who too is out of the series due to his own hamstring injury after a successful IPL campaign with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. An official announcement regarding both Rohit and Virat’s unavailability, though, is yet to be made by the BCCI.
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As cited by NDTV Sports, Rohit has yet to recover from his hamstring injury, which did not allow him to take part for MI for the full season, where they anyway had a disastrous campaign. Even after his return towards the fag end of the tournament, Rohit only appeared as an impact player, which raised questions over his full match-readiness.
The selection committee did not pick an all-in bowling attack for the series, with big names like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj being rested for workload management. Even the experienced all-round duo Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are missing, as Ajit Agarkar has picked the fresh faces of Harsh Dubey, Prince Yadav, and Gurnoor Brar for the ODI series, which commences on June 13 in Dharamsala.
India’s ODI squad:
Shubman Gill (C), Shreyas Iyer (VC), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Harsh Dubey, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar, Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, and Kuldeep Yadav
Note: An official announcement regarding the status of Rohit, Virat and Hardik is yet to be made.
