Or at least that is how it appeared from the first tier beyond the sightscreen at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. India were having their optional practice session ahead of the first ODI against Afghanistan in Dharamsala on June 13. Reddy’s delivery pitched around good length and nipped back sharply to hit Rohit on the pads. Only an inside edge could have saved him.
Rohit and Hardik Pandya were picked in the squad for the Afghanistan ODIs subject to fitness. While Pandya is set to be ruled out of the series with a leg strain, Rohit has been cleared.
On Wednesday evening, Rohit started the training with light running before joining the centre-wicket practice. After the first ball thudded into his pads, he carefully left the following two deliveries, from Arshdeep Singh and Gurnoor Brar.
Newly appointed T20I captain Shreyas Iyer also struggled for rhythm initially but as he and Rohit faced more and more deliveries, they found their touch. Once set, Rohit even unfurled his trademark pull shot against Prince Yadav.
In the adjacent net, Ishan Kishan was in an attacking mood right from the start. Facing local spinners, he repeatedly dispatched them into the midwicket stands. Even when he mishit a couple, he remained unperturbed. Later, he moved to the fast bowler’s net and continued to attack. While vice-captain KL Rahul is likely to be India’s first-choice wicketkeeper, Kishan could get a chance at No. 3 in this series in the absence of Virat Kohli.
Kishan, though, will face stiff competition from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kohli’s replacement in the squad. In fact, Jaiswal was the only one from the XI that played the one-off Test against Afghanistan to turn up for the practice. He began his stint by facing throwdowns in the practice nets next to the main ground before joining his colleagues. Wearing his broad, white, Test-match pads, he did not hesitate to take the aerial route and was the most fluent batter alongside Kishan.
With Pandya injured, Reddy will be India’s first-choice seam-bowling allrounder. Apart from troubling Rohit with his first delivery, he also hit the deck hard and extracted good bounce – just as he had done before the start of the second and the third day of the one-off Test in New Chandigarh.
Later, he too donned his white pads and batted for a considerable amount of time. He started by facing spinners before taking on fast bowlers. In between, he and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had a long discussion.
Talking about allrounders, Harsh Dubey was among the first to roll his arms over. He narrowly missed his Test debut as India opted for fellow left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Manav Suthar, but he could make his white-ball debut during the ODI series.
After finishing his bowling practice, Dubey also had a good hit with the bat. Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar are the other spin options in the squad and could be preferred over him to start with.
Among fast bowlers, Arshdeep, Brar and Prince did their shifts, while captain Shubman Gill, Rahul, fast bowler Prasidh Krishna and coach Gautam Gambhir decided to skip the session.
In the afternoon, Afghanistan had started their training with catching drills on the main ground before moving to the practice nets. Mohammad Saleem, who has been added to the ODI squad after his six-for in the Test, started the proceedings with the ball alongside Azmatullah Omarzai.
The duo bowled to openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, with Saleem rushing Gurbaz with his high pace and extra bounce from hard length. Zadran, meanwhile, showed better control. He wasn’t fully fit for the Test but he comes into the ODI series having scored two fifties in two List A games back home.
The Afghanistan practice session also saw a reunion of AM Ghazanfar and Raghu Sharma – both had shared the dressing room at Mumbai Indians during IPL 2026. Here, Ghazanfar is part of Afghanistan’s squad while Raghu was one of the net bowlers. Raghu approached the Afghan spinner from behind and covered his eyes – a cue to guess his name. Ghazanfar used his hands to feel Raghu’s hair, which was enough of a hint.
Rashid Khan and Mohmmad Nabi, though, didn’t attend the session. Nabi was unwell, while Rashid would reach Dharamsala directly.
