2 min readJun 4, 2026 11:08 AM IST
Virat Kohli has reportedly been ruled out of India’s upcoming ODI series against Afghanistan with a hamstring injury. The three-match series starts on June 13 and for 37-year-old Kohli, who has retired from Tests and T20 internationals, it would’ve marked his first international match since he scored a century against New Zealand on January 18 this year.
According to PTI, a hamstring injury has ended the former India captain’s chances of playing in the series. Kohli comes into the series on the back of stellar form. The 37-year-old was player of the match in the 2026 IPL final, in which he powered Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to a five-wicket win over Gujarat Titans.
RCB and Kohli thus won the IPL for a second consecutive year and he finished the season fourth on the Orange Cap table with 675 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 160.00, his highest in an IPL career that goes back to the very first year of the league in 2008. Kohli also remarkably averaged 56.25 this season with five half-centuries and a century.
Before this season in the IPL, Kohli had struck the kind of form in ODIs that was a hark back to his prolific run between 2015 and 2019. While he copped consecutive ducks in his first two matches since retiring from Tests and T20Is late last year, Kohli has since gone on a run of seven matches in which he didn’t cross 50 just once. He scored centuries in three of those matches, including the last one he played against New Zealand.
It remains to be seen if fellow veteran Rohit Sharma is available for the whole series against Afghanistan. Rohit, like Kohli has retired from T20Is and Tests and remains active only in ODIs. Unlike Kohli, though, Rohit’s form was shaky going into the IPL and while he got off to a good start, a hamstring injury, ruled him out for the majority of the season. He was included in the Indian squad subject to fitness.
