Suryakumar and Hardik Pandya have been ruled out of upcoming Afghanistan T20Is

Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya will be absent from India's team for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, which begins on January 11. The team will be chosen on Sunday evening. There has been no confirmation of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's participation. Neither Rohit nor Kohli has played a T20I since India's semi-final loss to England in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Suryakumar and Hardik are scheduled to return from the IPL. Suryakumar, who led India in the December T20Is in South Africa, injured his ankle while fielding in the third and final encounter in Johannesburg. He just had ankle surgery and is anticipated to be back in a few months.

The Afghanistan series is India's final bilateral T20I assignment before the T20 World Cup, which starts directly after the IPL on June 1. Ideally, the selectors would have liked all 15 of their first-choice players to be eligible for selection, including Hardik, who suffered a ligament tear during a league match against Bangladesh in Pune in November and was forced to withdraw from the ODI World Cup.