After weeks of fitness updates and squad announcements, India's T20I series against Afghanistan finally gets underway on September 13, with all three matches — September 13, 15 and 17 — hosted at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium. It's the last assignment for Shreyas Iyer's squad before the group heads to Japan for the Asian Games later this month, and the headline team-news story is Jasprit Bumrah's return to India colours.
Bumrah has not played international cricket since a left-knee injury forced him out of India's final ODI against England, and the issue also ruled him out of the Test tour of Sri Lanka in August. He was cleared to play after a second match simulation at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence produced no setbacks, and his return gives India's new-ball attack its most experienced operator back for both this series and the Asian Games that follows.
India's 15 for the series is led by Shreyas Iyer, with Tilak Varma as vice-captain, and includes Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan as the two wicketkeeping options, 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and an all-rounder-heavy middle order in Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. Yash Thakur takes the fast-bowling slot originally earmarked for Harshit Rana, who was ruled out with a fresh thigh injury. Every conditional case from earlier in the month — Bumrah, Sundar and Reddy — has now been resolved in India's favour, leaving selectors with closer to a first-choice XI than the squad list initially suggested.
Afghanistan's own squad, led by Ibrahim Zadran, is boosted by the return of two senior campaigners: Naveen-ul-Haq, back from a shoulder injury, and Gulbadin Naib, adding experience to a touring party that otherwise leans on Afghanistan's well-established spin depth. A pace option returning to full fitness gives Zadran's attack more balance than a purely spin-reliant line-up would offer on Delhi surfaces that, in mid-September, can still assist seam bowling with the new ball before turning drier as an innings progresses.
On paper, this is a mismatch on recent history — India have won eight of their nine T20I meetings with Afghanistan, with the only blemish a rain-affected no-result at the 2023 Asian Games. But neither side is treating this as a formality. For India, it's explicitly a preparation series for a squad that overlaps heavily with the Asian Games group, giving fringe players a last competitive audition before a knockout tournament where India enter directly at the quarter-final stage. Afghanistan, for their part, have repeatedly troubled higher-ranked opposition in white-ball cricket in recent years, and a spin attack strengthened further by Naveen-ul-Haq's return is a genuine test for India's batters rather than a warm-up they can take lightly.
With the series result unlikely to be the main talking point, the more interesting question is how India use these three matches. Does Bumrah bowl a full quota in his first game back, or is his workload managed with the Asian Games in mind? Does Sooryavanshi get an extended run in the middle order against a spin-heavy attack, the exact conditions his Duleep Trophy form was built in? Those selection calls, more than the scoreline, are what this series is likely to be remembered for once the Asian Games squad is finalised in the coming weeks.
All three T20Is are covered ball-by-ball on SportGod's live matches page, with AI-powered match predictions published ahead of each game and fantasy contests open in SportGod's free games.
Squad details, player returns and the head-to-head record are verified against same-day reporting, current as of September 12, 2026.
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