Fans in India have been bingeing on T20 cricket this year, starting with the men’s World Cup, followed by more than two months of IPL. A few days after the T20 league, there was the one-off Test against Afghanistan. After witnessing cricket at both extremes of the sport’s format spectrum, focus now shifts to the middle ground when the Men in Blue take on the Afghans in a three-match ODI series starting here at the picturesque HPCA Stadium on Saturday (June 12, 2026).

Nowadays, there is heightened buzz whenever India plays one-dayers, considering two of the country’s biggest stars, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, continue to don the national colours only in this format.

Unfortunately, Kohli will miss this assignment due to a hamstring injury he sustained during the IPL final. Fans, though, can still enjoy former skipper Rohit, who recently cleared a fitness test. And it is an aspect of the opener’s game that the decision-makers will keenly watch as they chart out their preparations for the 2027 World Cup.

Rohit had a lean IPL in which he missed five games due to injury and needs to make full use of these outings to regain form. Rohit at 39 years and 44 days will become the oldest man to play for the country in ODIs and is due for a big knock after a below-par effort against New Zealand earlier in the year.

On the team combination front, though Yashasvi Jaiswal has replaced Kohli, the side has a readymade one-drop batter in Ishan Kishan, who has been recalled after more than two years. K.L. Rahul is another option at No. 3.

The host will also want to see what promising pacers Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar, along with spin-bowling all-rounder Harsh Dubey, can offer.

While on paper the Shubman Gill-led outfit starts as favourite, the visitor won’t be a pushover. Afghanistan has won its previous five bilateral ODI series, beating teams such as South Africa, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh (twice). Hashmatullah Shahidi’s squad has good depth across departments. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan bring valuable experience to a line-up that also boasts exciting young talents.

Since the first meeting between the two sides in 2010, Afghanistan have not defeated India in any of the three versions. However, this series offers the upstart — which has beaten every other full-member side in international cricket — a chance to change that. And they only need to look at their own A team, which upstaged India-A in Sri Lanka in a one-day game on Thursday, for inspiration. Can the senior team follow suit?

The teams (from): India: Shubman Gill (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer (Vice-capt.), Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Kumar, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, and Harsh Dubey.

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (Capt.), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharotai, Allah Ghazanfar, Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi, Fareed Malik, and Bilal Sami.

Match starts at 1.30 p.m.

India bowling coach Morne Morkel hinted that the team would rotate players to bat at No. 3 in the absence of Virat Kohli during the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan. “That’s something that we’ll play around with, [whether] it’s Ishan (Kishan) or K.L. (Rahul) or Yashasvi (Jaiswal),” said Morkel in response to a question on who will take the former skipper’s place.

“We have got a couple of one-day games coming up, and we’ll give players an opportunity in different slots to give ourselves a better idea of how we can structure teams and have different options,” he said on the eve of the first ODI at the HPCA Stadium.

In the last five years, Rahul has become a dependable performer in the middle-order, batting at No. 5 or lower most of the time. Interestingly, on Friday (June 12, 2025), Kishan was seen donning the gloves during training while Rahul — who has been India’s designated wicket-keeper for a while now — was taking outfield catches, giving credence to the fact that the Karnataka batter could get a promotion.

Commenting on new pacers Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar, who are in line for their international debuts, Morkel felt the youngsters are quite ready for the challenge.

“First impressions, it is almost like they’ve been part of the squad for five years. I saw no nervousness on their face. The way they’ve gone about training, the energy they’ve trained with, was good to see,” said the former South African pacer.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi felt his side’s recent form in the 50-over format gives it the confidence to spring a surprise on the Men in Blue.

“India is a tough opposition. But at the same time, we have also played quality cricket in this format in the recent past. So, it will be a good contest between both teams,” said Shahidi.