Toss India chose to bowl vs Afghanistan

India handed debuts to spin-bowling allrounder Harsh Dubey and fast bowler Gurnoor Brar and chose to bowl in the first ODI against Afghanistan in Dharamsala, which was reduced to a 25 overs-a-side contest due to rain. A drizzle had delayed the toss by four hours and 15 minutes from the scheduled time of 1.00 pm.

In Virat Kohli’s absence, KL Rahul was listed to bat at No. 3 with Gill and Rohit Sharma slated to open. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who was designated as the wicketkeeper, are likely to come in at No. 4 and 5 with allrounders Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy to follow. Out of the squad of 14, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav and Prince were on the bench.

“It’s a little overcast and there could be rain around, so always better to chase. It could be a good wicket to bat,” Gill said at the toss.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi also wanted to bowl. Fast bowler Ziaur Rahman was handed his ODI debut, with Afghanistan going with three spinners and three seamers in the side.

India’s previous ODI was in January, while Afghanistan haven’t played one since October 2025.

India: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 KL Rahul, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Ishan Kishan (wk), 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Harsh Dubey, 9 Gurnoor Brar, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Afghanistan: 1 Ibrahim Zadran, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Sediqullah Atal, 4 Rahmat Shah, 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mohammad Saleem, 10 AM Ghazanfar, 11 Ziaur Rahman