MUMBAI — Ajit Agarkar said exactly what he knew, and conceded the rest. Virat Kohli is out of the Afghanistan ODI series. Yashasvi Jaiswal is in. And whether Kohli is fit for England in July depends on a physio timeline the chief selector admitted he does not yet have.
Agarkar addressed the media at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday, one week after Kohli batted through what turned out to be a significant hamstring injury in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s title-winning IPL 2026 final against Gujarat Titans. Kohli scored 75 not out that night, visibly struggling between wickets in the final overs. The three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, beginning June 13 in Dharamsala, came too soon.
“With Virat at this point, it’s just been less than a week since he injured himself in the [IPL] finals,” Agarkar said. “We don’t know the timelines yet. But it looks like he might be fit for that England one-day series. It’s not a definitive answer, so don’t hold me to it. I haven’t had a clear timeline from the physio yet.”
The England series begins July 14. That is roughly five weeks from now. Whether Kohli can be match-ready in that window is the central question for India’s ODI planning through the northern hemisphere summer, and Agarkar was precise about how little he was willing to commit to. The word “might” carried weight in that sentence. So did the disclaimer that followed.
Jaiswal, 24, has played only four ODIs but made each one count. His most recent appearance in the 50-over format came in Visakhapatnam on December 6, 2025, when he scored an unbeaten 116 off 121 balls against South Africa to seal India’s series win — his maiden international century in the format. He has been an all-format player for India in all but official designation, and Saturday’s announcement was the BCCI making that status explicit for a series that was always going to be more about development than declaration.
As first reported earlier this week, Rohit Sharma’s participation in the same series also remains conditional. The 39-year-old picked up a hamstring injury during IPL 2026 and will report to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru within the next two to three days for a fitness assessment. Agarkar said they were “awaiting their final fitness clearance” and that the usual process applies. Hardik Pandya, who has been at the Centre of Excellence since June 2 undergoing rehabilitation for back spasms, is in the same position.
What that uncertainty does, practically, is hand the Afghanistan series to a younger nucleus. Shubman Gill leads the side. Shreyas Iyer is his deputy. KL Rahul holds the gloves. The squad includes three uncapped players — Harsh Dubey, Gurnoor Brar, and Prince Yadav — and a series against a team that has developed one of the more discomforting spin attacks in limited-overs cricket. Whatever batting combination Gill ultimately fields in Dharamsala will have to solve Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman without the two batters who between them have accumulated more ODI runs than any other pair in Indian history.
Agarkar also addressed Pandya’s longer-term role. “Like Bumrah, if we can keep him fit for one-day cricket, it gives us the opportunity to give someone like Nitish Reddy more chances in T20 cricket,” he said. “There will be some rotation in T20s, but the main objective is to see if Hardik can stay healthy and continue playing ODI cricket, with the 2027 World Cup only a year and a half away.” The sub-text was clear enough: Pandya, when fit, is not being managed out of the ODI picture. He is being protected for it.
Kohli’s position in that picture is the one nobody at the BCCI has been willing to frame as a question. He now plays only ODI cricket for India, having retired from Tests and T20 internationals after India’s 2024 T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados. His last ODI appearance was in the home series against New Zealand in January, a series India lost 2-1. He top-scored in it with 240 runs at an average of 80. The Afghanistan series was supposed to be the start of his ODI run-up to South Africa in October 2027. The hamstring has interrupted that calculation — not ended it, but pushed back its starting point.
As the selection pressure around Kohli’s World Cup place builds heading into a defining 18-month window, the timing of this injury is uncomfortable. It hands Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, and the rest of the middle order an unscripted audition in conditions that suit spin, against an opponent with nothing to lose. ESPNcricinfo reported that the squad for the England ODIs will be announced after the Afghanistan series concludes.
The ODI schedule runs Dharamsala on June 13, Lucknow on June 17, and Chennai on June 20. Jaiswal scored 24 runs in the ongoing Test at New Chandigarh on Saturday, where India reached 209 for 2 at stumps on day one. Whether that form carries into the 50-over format, against the same opponents and on potentially slower surfaces, is a different proposition. The selectors will be watching. England is five weeks away. The physio has not yet given Agarkar a number.
