India's ODI Road Resumes with Afghanistan Challenge

India's focus now shifts to ODIs, with the next World Cup just over a year away. Their first series since the T20 World Cup comes with caveats: injuries and workload management have depleted the pace attack, opening doors for uncapped seamers Gurnoor Brar and Prince Yadav. Virat Kohli's absence leaves a vacancy at No. 3, which bowling coach Morne Morkel indicated could be filled by Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, or Yashasvi Jaiswal.

India's home series defeat to New Zealand was a rare stumble in this World Cup cycle. Afghanistan, meanwhile, have won five of six ODI series in this period, including a victory over South Africa. Dharamsala offers bounce and pace similar to South Africa, making this series a useful checkpoint for both teams.

When: 13 June 2026, 1:30 PM local
Where: HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala
What to expect: Rain forecast, which should aid fast bowlers. Three of five ODIs here in the 2023 World Cup were won by the team batting first.

Hardik Pandya is ruled out; focus on Nitish Reddy stepping up. Rohit Sharma is available. India likely to debut one of Brar or Prince.

Probable XI: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan/Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar/Prince Yadav

Rashid Khan joins Afghanistan's ODI setup. Mohammad Saleem may feature after his Test six-wicket haul.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ikram Alikhil (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Bilal Sami/Mohammad Saleem

• India lead 3-0 in four ODIs against Afghanistan (one tie).
• Rashid Khan: 27 wickets in 14 ODIs since the 2023 World Cup, avg 14, SR 21.7.
• Afghanistan have bowled the most spin overs in this cycle (61% of overs).

Morne Morkel: "Taking learnings from South Africa and New Zealand… looking for improvement in our 50-over game. That's a goal now… peaking at the right time."

Hashmatullah Shahidi: "We will test ourselves… good cricket in ODIs recently… a good challenge for both teams."