Virat Kohli out of IND vs AFG 1st T20I: Virat Kohli will be absent for the first T20I against Afghanistan in Mohali due to personal reasons, confirmed India coach Rahul Dravid. Kohli is expected to return for the second and third matches of the series in Indore and Bengaluru.
This series marks the return of Kohli and India captain Rohit Sharma to T20Is since the T20 World Cup in November 2022.
Dravid explained that managing players across formats and prioritizing certain tournaments have been essential due to the packed cricket schedule.
“There’s been quite a few ICC events over the last two, three years, and a lot of them back to back,” Dravid said.
“So there’s not been a lot of time in between these ICC events. At various stages, in the last couple of years that I’ve been here, we’ve had to prioritise certain formats, certain tournaments, simply because just the amount of cricket that is being played, and just managing the players, it’s impossible for all the players to be playing all the time.
“So we’ve always had to prioritize what is important, especially for the guys who are playing all the three formats. Even in this series, people such as [Jasprit] Bumrah, [Ravindra] Jadeja and [Mohammed] Siraj have missed out because keeping in mind the five Test matches that we have against England. So you’re always playing that juggling act a little bit over the last two years.”
Virat Kohli out of IND vs AFG 1st T20I: Yashaswi Jaiswal will Open
Yashasvi Jaiswal is set to open alongside Rohit in Kohli’s absence, and the batting order will undergo changes with the unavailability of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.
India T20 Squad for Afghanistan Series: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Virat Kohli, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav
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