India named four players subject to fitness clearance, and Harshit Rana is the one who missed out
India’s squad for the Afghanistan T20Is came with a condition attached to four names. Three of them cleared it at the Centre of Excellence this week. Harshit Rana did not.
Sep 10, 2026
The BCCI named 15 players for the Afghanistan T20Is on 1 September, and put a condition next to four of them. Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana were all picked subject to fitness clearance, which is the selectors’ way of choosing a player and leaving the medical staff to decide whether the choice counts.
The verdicts have landed over the past week at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Bumrah is through. Sundar is through. Reddy is through. Rana is not.
Rana’s setback came in the test itself
Rana broke down again on 8 September during a match simulation, part of the return-to-play protocol every rehabbing India player has to complete before the medical panel signs off. A BCCI source put it plainly: he has not fully recovered from the hamstring injury, and he needs more time.
That hamstring dates back to the third T20I against England in July. It is the second distinct injury to cost the 24-year-old a major assignment this year. In February he was ruled out of the T20 World Cup after a knee problem in the warm-up against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, where he managed a single over before walking off. Mohammed Siraj took his place in that squad. Surgery followed, and with it the whole of IPL 2026 for Kolkata Knight Riders.
India have not named a replacement for the Afghanistan series. The bigger question is the Asian Games, where Rana is still officially in the squad. India fly out on 18 September, which leaves him 10 days to go from a fresh hamstring setback to a passed fitness test. Ten days is not long for a hamstring that gave way in a controlled session.
Bumrah and Sundar were hurt in the same match
The two clearances that matter most both trace to one afternoon in Cardiff. In the second ODI against England in July, Sundar tore into a run in the 33rd over and felt his right hamstring go. He batted on for one more delivery, edged Saqib Mahmood to Jos Buttler for two, and did not take the field in a chase India lost by four wickets. Bumrah, fielding in the same game, took an impact blow to his left knee. He finished the match. The knee swelled overnight, and he sat out the Lord’s decider three days later.
Sundar’s clearance came through first, on the evening of 9 September. Bumrah’s arrived after his own match simulation the same day, in which he bowled without discomfort.
Worth remembering how the last one of these went. Bumrah was named in India’s Test squad for Sri Lanka in August on exactly the same terms, subject to a final fitness test. He did the tests. Then the sports science team decided the risk was not worth it given how packed the calendar is, Bumrah withdrew with persistent discomfort in the knee, and uncapped seamer Auqib Nabi was called up instead. Clearance and availability have not meant the same thing for Bumrah this year.
Reddy has been out since June, against these same opponents
Reddy has not played for India since the June ODIs against Afghanistan, and that series is where the damage was done. He hurt his left quadriceps bowling in the first ODI at Dharamsala, was rested for the second in Lucknow, came back for the third in Chennai and sent down six wicketless overs for 42 before reporting discomfort again. The tours of Ireland and England went ahead without him.
The 23-year-old completed his final match simulation on 9 September. The medical team’s read was that his bowling workload cleared every check, and reports out of the CoE say he has been bowling quicker in rehab than he was before it. For a side that has spent a year trying to find a seam-bowling all-rounder who stays fit, that is the most useful sentence of the week.
An away series in Delhi
The three T20Is are on 13, 15 and 17 September at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, and Afghanistan are the designated home team for all of them. International cricket has not been played inside Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, so the ACB stages its home fixtures in the UAE and India. India will walk into a ground they know better than any other visiting side and be the away team on the scorecard.
Shreyas Iyer captains, with Tilak Varma as his deputy. Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan are the two wicketkeepers, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi keeps his place, and Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi carry the spin alongside Axar Patel and Sundar. With Rana out, Arshdeep Singh and Bumrah are the specialist quicks, and Reddy is the third seam option.
Four conditional picks, three of them cleared. India have lost Bumrah, Sundar, Reddy and Rana to four separate injuries since June, so this is the best fitness news the selectors have had in months.