MOHALI: India's star batter Virat Kohli will miss the first T20 International against Afghanistan owing to "personal reasons", head coach Rahul Dravid said here on Wednesday.
Virat miss the game tomorrow due to personal reasons, Dravid said at the start of the media interaction.
The former India captain will be available for the next two matches of the three-match series, Dravid said, adding, "Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma will be opening the innings" for India in the series opener on Thursday.
Both Rohit and Kohli are returning to the T20 format after 14 months.
Kohli last played in the shortest format in November 2022, his last game being India's semifinal loss to England during the T20 World Cup in Australia.
India would be expected to win comfortably in their own conditions but Afghanistan will give them a run for their money.
Having recently exceeded all expectations in their giant-killing run during the ODI World Cup in India, Afghanistan will be high on confidence in a format that suits them the most.
Barring Rashid's injury-forced absence, the team is at full strength after the likes of Mujeeb Zadran, Naveen-Ul Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqi sorted their contractual issues with the country's cricket board.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan.