India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate on Thursday said the fitness of senior batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be assessed in the coming days ahead of the three-game ODI series against Afghanistan, adding that official communication will follow once the medical team takes a call.
While Rohit’s participation in the three-game series is subject to fitness after sustaining a hamstring injury in IPL 2026, Kohli’s availability is in doubt due to him suffering a hamstring strain while making an unbeaten 75 in the final for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who defended their title in Ahmedabad on June 1.
India are also awaiting to see if seam-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya will be fully fit for the 50-over series against Afghanistan after back spasms led to him missing a few games for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2026.
“Official communication will come on that. It’s obviously big news when it’s someone like Virat or Rohit (is ruled out), but the same protocols will be in place. We’ll assess the fitness of those guys, and we’ve got a few days now to decide whether they’re fit enough to play and be part of the squad and make adjustments accordingly.
“But I’m sure some official communication will come through as soon as the medical team has made a decision on that,” said ten Doeschate in a press conference ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan starting on Saturday.
He also weighed in on the issue of centrally contracted players featuring in the latter stages of the IPL despite carrying injuries, saying the matter needed to be managed individually.
“I think it’s a very individualistic thing. With the Indian hat on, we want the players to be at their absolute best when they’re on international duty, and that’s a case of managing it case by case. So I appreciate that it’s a big time of year for those players.
“The IPL is a showpiece domestic competition, so it’s striking a balance between those two things. I think with the workload guys had going into that last IPL, or certainly a large proportion of the contracted players, I think we’ve done fairly well out of it, and injuries happen.”
“You can’t protect guys by not playing them, but we certainly need to identify the key parts of the international schedule and make sure our best players are uninjured but also physically at their peak when we need them the most,” he added.
