India misses three star players for T20Is against Afghanistan

India will be without the services of Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in January 2024. The news comes following the inability of the three players to be fit before the series against the Asian side. It will act as a big blow for India considering the way they have won matches for India in the recent past. 

Hardik Pandya has started to recover from the ligament tear he sustained during the ODI World Cup 2023. In the match against Bangladesh, Hardik attempted to stop a ball from travelling towards boundary ropes after bowling. In the process, Hardik suffered the injury and got ruled out of the match, the entire WC, and for the series against Australia, South Africa, and now against Afghanistan.

Ruturaj Gaikwad sustained a finger injury during the rceently concluded ODI series against SA. The star batter has not yet recovered completely for the same and will hence be not in the series against Afghanistan. Reports claim that Gaikwad is set to miss out the first couple of matches in the Test series against England, which is scheduled to take place from the 25th of January.

New captain for India?

Suryakumar Yadav got a bad injury during the third T20I against SA. As a result, he has been ruled out of the series against Afghanistan. The unorthodox batter underwent a surgery for ankle after the incident. While the MI batter is on his way for recovery, there are questions raised over the potential captains for the series against Afghanistan. India will be without Hradik and Suryakumar for the series against Afghanistan.

Both the players have captained India in the recent past. Hardik was the regular captain of India before the ODI WC 2023 and after the T20 WC 2022. on the other hand, Suryakumar led India in the absence of Hardik against SA and Australia. It will be interesting to see whether India would go with a new option to lead them or recall someone special back to the side.