• Source:JND
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India vs Afghanistan 1st T20I: Virat Kohli, star Indian batter will not be available for the first T20I match against Afghanistan in Mohali on Thursday, January 11.

Kohli, who is making his T20I return alongside skipper Rohit Sharma after more than a year, will miss the opening game of the three-match series due to personal reasons, confirmed head coach Rahul Dravid.

Both Kohli and Rohit last played a T20I match in 2022 which was the semi-final of the T20 World Cup against England.

In the absence of Kohli, Rohit will be opening the innings with the young batter Yashasvi Jaiswal.

It is also to be noted that Kohli hasn't traveled to Mohali with the Indian team.

However, the star batter will be joining the team ahead of the second T20I in Indore later this week.

After taking a while to announce the squad for the three-match series, the national selection committee named Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the squad for the series against Afghanistan, which is the only last T20I series that India will be featuring in ahead of the T20 World Cup in June.
 
There were several speculations over the future of Virat and Rohit in the T20I format before it was conveyed that the latter would be leading the side in the T20 WC this year.
 
Virat's role in the T20I side was still not clear before the selectors and the team management decided to stick with the experienced campaigners and there is a possibility that both might be witnessed opening the innings for the Men in Blue heading forward in the shortest format.
 
Virat last featured in the Test series against South Africa and was the top run-getter for the Indian team, having scored 174 runs in the two-match series.
 

 

India's squad for T20I series against Afghanistan: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.