India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate was non-committal when he was asked about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s fitness ahead of the ODI series against Afghanistan. Both veterans have been named in the ODI squad but there are doubts over their participation due to injury.
Rohit missed five out of the 14 games in IPL 2026 for Mumbai Indians due to a hamstring injury. Similarly, Virat suffered a hamstring injury while batting in the final clash against Gujarat Titans. Kohli has reportedly been ruled out of the three-match series.
However, the former Dutch batter Doeschate said the team is yet to receive an update from team’s medical experts.
Doeschate said in the press conference, “Official communication will come on that. You know, it’s obviously big news when it’s someone like Virat or Rohit, but the same protocols will be in place where we’ll assess the fitness of those guys, and we’ve got a few days now to decide whether they are 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 confirmed.”
The Indian assistant said it is a very individualistic thing when players carry on playing in the IPL despite injury woes.
“I think it’s a very individualistic thing, you know, with the India 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 on a case-by-case basis. We also appreciate that it’s a big time of year for those players. The IPL is a showpiece domestic competition,” said Ten Doeschate (via the aforementioned source).
“So, it’s striking a balance between those two things, and I think with the workload guys have had playing in the last IPL, I think we’ve done fairly well out of it. You know, 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 most.”
The first ODI between India and Afghanistan will be played at Dharamshala on June 13th.
