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Rohit Sharma will be leading the Indian cricket team in the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan starting January 11 while Virat Kohli will be making his much-anticipated return to T20I cricket. Both Kohli and Rohit last played a T20I match in the T20 World Cup 2022 semifinal against England back in November 2022. The Indian cricket team fans were ecstatic about the long-awaited return of the two veteran stars in T20I cricket and they took to social media to express their pleasure at the development.

Welcome Back Legend in T20I Format

We Missed a Lot

All the best For afghanistan Series

— Ajay Gautam (@gautam_ajay007) January 7, 2024

While Rohit’s chances of leading India in the T20 World Cup has considerably brightened, the development comes across as a big blow to Hardik’s captaincy ambitions at the global event in June.

Yes, we missed this king pair for 14 long months pic.twitter.com/yaf3NFKVOs

— Shumaila Tanveer (@shumaila56_) January 7, 2024

However, he has replaced Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians skipper for IPL 2024.

The T20I squad also features Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma, who will be the two glovesmen with Ishan Kishan being ignored for the shortest format.

RohiRat era is back

— Pankaj (@Pankaj41627) January 7, 2024

“Ishan wasn’t happy that he was travelling without much game time. He is on a break right now and is vacationing. In any case, selectors are in all likelihood are looking beyond Kishan.

“It will be interesting if he is picked for England Test series where KS Bharat will be back behind the stumps,” a BCCI source told PTI.

Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, the two Test team certainties, have been rested and Ruturaj Gaikwad isn’t fit to play yet.

All-rounder Shivam Dube has also been named in the squad in Hardik’s absence.

The Afghanistan series will be India’s last before the World Cup, which takes place right after the IPL.

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith reckons leaving out the likes of Rohit and Kohli from any team is extremely tough. “I wouldn’t want to be a selector. It’s a very tough decision to leave out two players who have been incredible. Virat always comes back incredibly well. With the amount of talent that India has now, it is a difficult choice to make,” said Smith on the sidelines of an interaction organised ahead of SA20.

India’s Squad for 3 T20Is against Afghanistan: 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.

(With PTI inputs)