Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been named in India's ODI Squad to face Afghanistan. Image Credit: ANI
India Squad vs Afghanistan: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the Indian national cricket team squad for a one-off test and ODI series against Afghanistan scheduled to take place in early June. While the test match won’t be counted in the World Test Championship (WTC) rankings, it will give the Indian team a chance to test out fresher players. In recent times, India’s record at home, particularly, has not been great against the spinners. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant, who was named the vice-captain with Shubman Gill taking over captaincy, has been relieved of his duties. KL Rahul has been named as Gill’s deputy in the longest format.
India Test Squad: Shubman Gill (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (VC), Sai Sudharsan, Rishabh Pant, Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Manav Suthar, Gurnoor Brar, Dhruv Jurel
India ODI Squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, Harsh Dubey
One of the most prominent names missing from both Indian squads is that of Jasprit Bumrah. Since the last few years, one of BCCI’s top priorities has been managing Jasprit Bumrah’s workload across formats. As India prepared for the T20 World Cup 2026, Bumrah missed ODIs and played test cricket sparingly. However, given India’s next big assignment is the ODI World Cup in 2027, it was expected that the right-arm pacer would at least be named in the squad to face Afghanistan. The possible reasoning behind him not being named is that the Indian board and the selection unit might want to test other pacers.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have possibly been two of the greatest batters in One-Day cricket. While Rohit has emerged as a top opening batter, Virat has cemented himself as possibly the greatest player in the history of the format. However, for both these players, the final target would be to win the ODI World Cup 2027 in South Africa. While Kohli was part of the team that won in 2011, the closest Rohit came to winning was in 2023 when India lost in the finals under his captaincy.
However, the two giants of Indian cricket gear up for a final dance. Rohit Sharma will be opening the innings with Shubman Gill and will be under some pressure. There are many contenders to Rohit’s spot, while Kohli continues to be India’s top batter in the format.
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
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