Hardik Pandya ruled out of the Afghanistan ODIs with a quad strain

India will start their three-match ODI series against Afghanistan without Hardik Pandya, who has been ruled out after picking up a quadriceps strain during a fitness assessment at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

The strain showed up after Pandya bowled a full ten-over spell in the session. A board source put the recovery at around three weeks, which rules him out of the whole series. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed the withdrawal and said the team management would name a replacement later.

A second senior name gone in a week

Pandya’s exit comes only days after Virat Kohli was ruled out of the same series. Kohli strained his hamstring during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s run to the IPL 2026 title and was replaced by Yashasvi Jaiswal. Two senior players lost inside a week forces Shubman Gill to rework a batting order that looked settled when the squad was first picked, with Rohit Sharma among the senior names he still leans on.

Pandya’s value is harder to cover than a top-order batter. He gives the side a seam-bowling all-rounder who lets the selectors play an extra batter or spinner, and there is no like-for-like option in the group. Nitish Kumar Reddy is already in the squad and can bowl his overs, while Shivam Dube is the name doing the rounds as a possible call-up. Saikia has not put a name to the replacement yet.

A fitness record that keeps getting in the way

This is the latest in a long run of breakdowns for the 32-year-old. He had already missed a few of Mumbai Indians’ games in IPL 2026 with a back spasm, and his body has rarely given him a long clean run across formats in recent years. Bowling has been the recurring trigger, and the fact that this strain arrived during a controlled assessment rather than a match will worry the medical staff more than a one-off knock would.

India have managed his workload carefully for two years, picking him as a batter who bowls when fit rather than banking on a guaranteed quota of overs. Even with that caution, the all-rounder slot keeps reopening every time a series comes around.

What it means for the Afghanistan ODIs

The series moves from Dharamsala to Lucknow and then Chennai, and Afghanistan arrive with a white-ball side good enough to punish a reshuffled XI. Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and a deep spin attack make them awkward opponents in Indian conditions, and Gill’s batting now leans more heavily on the players around him after two withdrawals.

Pandya is expected to be fit again for India’s ODIs in England next month, which softens the blow in the longer view. For this series, though, India have to find a way to balance the side without the player who has held that balance together for the best part of a decade.

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