The fitness saga that has shadowed India's build-up to the Afghanistan T20I series has produced its first firm answers. A day after Washington Sundar was cleared and Bumrah's second match simulation was scheduled, the BCCI's Centre of Excellence has delivered a mixed verdict on the two remaining names: good news for Nitish Kumar Reddy, and a serious setback for Harshit Rana.
Nitish Kumar Reddy completed his final match simulation in Bengaluru and cleared every check put in front of him, including his bowling workload. He is fit and available for all three T20Is against Afghanistan, starting September 13 in Delhi, giving India's team management one fewer selection headache with the squad due to assemble in the capital this week.
Harshit Rana's path back has gone the other way. Rana sustained a hamstring injury during his own return-to-play match simulation at the Centre of Excellence, re-aggravating the issue that first surfaced during India's T20I series in England earlier this year. He is now considered unlikely to recover in time for the Afghanistan series, and the same injury has put his place at the Asian Games in Japan — for which he was also named in India's squad — in genuine doubt.
Jasprit Bumrah remains the outstanding case. He underwent his second and final match simulation on September 9, and the BCCI's medical team was expected to deliver its verdict soon after, but no official confirmation of his fitness had been issued as of this report. With the first T20I five days away, a decision is expected imminently, and it is the one call left that materially changes the shape of India's pace attack for the series opener.
Analysis: three of the four names going through this fitness process — Bumrah, Rana and Reddy — are also central to India's pace-bowling plans for the Asian Games squad, which shares personnel with this T20I group. Rana's setback is therefore not just an Afghanistan-series problem; it reopens a seam-bowling slot that selectors had believed was settled for the tournament in Japan as well. Reddy's clean bill of health, by contrast, removes one variable and strengthens India's case for using the Afghanistan series as a genuine dress rehearsal rather than a patched-together lineup.
With Rana likely out, India's other seam-bowling options — Arshdeep Singh and, fitness permitting, Bumrah himself — carry more of the workload than originally planned. Reddy's clearance gives the middle order its all-rounder cover back, which matters for a three-match series with almost no room to experiment on team balance once the first ball is bowled.
Squad news and Bumrah's final fitness call will be tracked on SportGod's live matches page, with fantasy contests open in SportGod's free games and further India coverage on SportGod's blog.
Fitness outcomes for Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana are verified against same-day reporting from the BCCI's Centre of Excellence; Bumrah's status is reported as pending as of this article, current as of September 10, 2026.
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