BCCI announces India’s T20I squad for Afghanistan series in Delhi. Sanju Samson and Jasprit Bumrah return, Hardik Pandya still unavailable
Shreyas Iyer will continue to lead the team with Tilak Varma working as his deputy. Like Bumrah, the participation of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana will also depend on their fitness and getting clearance to play.
Samson is back in the team after missing the Zimbabwe series alongside Varun Chakravarthy. The spinner suffered a hamstring injury during the England tour and was at the BCCI Centre of Excellence alongside Bumrah, Harshit, and Hardik, among others, to regain full fitness.
The series against Afghanistan, which is considered as an away assignment, will start from September 13 and go on till the 17th.
Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson [WK], Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
Hardik last played for India during the T20 World Cup final this year and his last on-field appearance came for Mumbai Indians during IPL 2026 on May 24. He was initially selected for India’s three-match ODI series against Afghanistan at home, but a leg strain forced him to withdraw from the squad.
The injury also kept him out of India’s subsequent white-ball assignments in Ireland and England, where the team played a total of eight T20Is and three ODIs. Since his initial injury setback, the all-rounder was seen working hard at the BCCI Centre Of Excellence to get back to full fitness.
The latest setback for Hardik will put BCCI CoE under the scanner yet again. The all-rounder has been in Bengaluru the longest amongst the players and even shifted bases to the city in a bid to get back to full fitness.
Questions over communication between the BCCI CoE's sports science and medical teams and the senior men’s selection committee have resurfaced, with Bumrah’s absence from the Sri Lanka Test series becoming the latest point of concern.
The BCCI has been operating without a permanent head of sports science since Nitin Patel stepped down, and the department’s recent handling of player fitness has once again brought its leadership structure under scrutiny.
With no full-time successor in place, interim sports science chief Dhananjay Kaushik is currently overseeing the department at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Kaushik brings considerable experience to the role, but concerns have surfaced over the rehabilitation periods being prescribed to injured players and whether the established ‘Return to Play’ procedures are being followed uniformly across cases.- EndsPublished By: alan johnPublished On: Sep 1, 2026 17:33 IST
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