Jasprit Bumrah has been declared fit by the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Yash Thakur replaced Harshit Rana, who has sustained a fresh injury, in the squads for the Afghanistan series as well as the Asian Games.
Bumrah, along with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar, had been named in the initial squad for the Afghanistan T20Is, subject to fitness clearance. The trio have been cleared for the series starting September 13.
Washington slogged it out with the squad during an afternoon training session at the Kotla on Thursday while Bumrah and Nitish are expected to join on Friday.
Rana was ruled out of India’s T20 World Cup campaign in February with a hamstring tear during a warm-up match before the tournament. He subsequently missed IPL 2026 before making a comeback into the squad on the tour to Ireland and England.
The all-rounder, however, suffered a fresh hamstring injury, ruling him out of the Zimbabwe tour. Thakur, who replaced Rana on the tour, made his debut and picked up four wickets in two matches.
The selection committee last week named Rana in the squad, subject to fitness clearance. According to a BCCI statement on Thursday, the Delhi pacer suffered another injury while undergoing mandatory fitness clearance tests at the COE earlier this week.
He “was progressing well during his rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. He
sustained a rectus femoris strain while bowling during a match simulation on September 7 and has subsequently been ruled out,” the BCCI release said.
Bumrah had missed the third ODI in England in July and then the two Tests in Sri Lanka after suffering a recurrence of his left knee injury. Washington too had picked up a hamstring injury on the tour of England, while Reddy had injured his quadriceps during the ODI series against Afghanistan in June.
During a recent interaction, Sunil Gavaskar told The Telegraph that Bumrah needed to play the T20Is to get back into rhythm after the injury-induced break before the Tests in New Zealand.
“There’s a big gap after the Asian Games on to the Test matches in New Zealand (mid-November)… So playing Bumrah I think is actually a good idea because he has to get some bowling under his belt before he plays in the series against New Zealand…” Gavaskar said.
“Mohammed Siraj was not quite in rhythm (in Sri Lanka) since he hadn’t played enough cricket, he wasn’t probably… it was thought that he didn’t bowl at his best, so it’s also important for the bowlers to get some overs under their belt and Bumrah getting these overs is very essential,” Gavaskar said.