Big picture: Which team will shake off the rust better?
Of course, there is the small matter of rustiness in the format. India’s last ODI came in January, while Afghanistan haven’t played one since October 2025, so players may take some time to find their 50-overs rhythm.
form guide
India: LLWWL (Last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
afghanistan: WWWWL
In the spotlight
Team news: Kishan to play the Kohli role
With Kohli ruled out with a hamstring injury, Ishan Kishan is most likely to step into the No. 3 role after a prolific run in domestic cricket, the IPL and for India in the T20 World Cup in 2026. Rohit Sharma is fit and set to open alongside the skipper Shubman Gill, while Reddy will slot in for the injured Hardik. Meanwhile, one of Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar is set to make their ODI debuts.
India XI (probable): 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul, 6 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Prince Yadav/Gurnoor Brar
Fast bowler Mohammad Saleem was drafted into the ODI squad after an impressive showing in the only Test between the two teams in New Chandigarh. He could slot in for Bilal Sami if Afghanistan opt for the sole specialist fast bowler in addition to Omarzai, or replace one of the spinners, depending on the conditions. Senior allrounder Mohammad Nabi is unwell, so he remains a doubt.
Afghanistan XI (probable): 1 Ibrahim Zadran, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 3 Sediqullah Atal, 4 Rahmat Shah, 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Ikram Alikhil (wk), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mohammad Saleem, 10 AM Ghazanfar, 11 Ziaur Rahman
Stats and trivia
- This will be the first bilateral ODI series between India and Afghanistan. The two teams have only met in World Cups and Asia Cups in the format. India have won three of their four ODI encounters, with the other ending in a tie.
- Rashid Khan has five wickets in three ODIs against India. He’ll be playing this series after an impressive IPL campaign and will be key for Afghanistan.
- Shreyas Iyer is 23 runs away from 3000 ODI runs, while Shubman Gill needs 47 runs to reach that landmark.
Pitch and conditions
This will be the first bilateral ODI in Dharamsala since 2017. We can expect some swing with the new ball, but it’s generally a venue good for batting. Teams chasing have won five ODIs here, while teams batting first have won four. The last ODI here, in the 2023 World Cup, saw Australia pile on 388, with New Zealand falling short by just five runs.
Quotes
“In terms of that No. 3 slot, it’s something that in this we’ll play around with, whether it’s Ishan (Kishan) or KL (Rahul) or Yashasvi (Jaiswal). It’s a nice opportunity now, we’ve got a couple of one-day games coming up and we’ll give guys opportunities indifferent slots just to give ourselves a better idea in terms of how we can go and structure teams and have different options.”
India fast bowling coach Morne Morkel on the team experimenting with batting roles.
Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
