Kohli was ruled out of the three ODIs against Afghanistan due to a hamstring injury picked up while hitting a match-winning 75 not out in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 final against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad. In his absence, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, and Yashasvi Jaiswal are in contention to bat at number three.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s something that in this series we\u2019ll play around with, (whether) it\u2019s Ishan (Kishan) or KL (Rahul) or Yashasvi (Jaiswal). We have got a couple of one\u2011day games coming up, and we\u2019ll give guys an opportunity in different slots to give ourselves a better idea of how we can structure teams and have different options,\u201d Morkel said in the pre-match press conference.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Rahul has largely featured as a middle-order batter in the past five years, but in India\u2019s training session on Friday, Kishan was on keeping duties while Rahul was tasked with taking outfield catches, thus raising the prospect of the Karnataka lad being promoted up the order for Saturday\u2019s clash.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Morkel also spoke about the new pacers Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar, who are in line to get their international debuts in the series, with the next two games to be played in Lucknow and Chennai on June 17 and 20, respectively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cFirst impressions, it is almost like they\u2019ve been part of the squad for five years. I saw no nervousness on their face. The way they\u2019ve gone about training, the energy they\u2019ve trained with, was good to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Morkel signed off by saying that Rohit Sharma was all fine after being spotted training with a different thigh pad, initially thought as protection for his hamstring, which he injured during IPL 2026.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cFirst impressions, it is almost like they\u2019ve been part of the squad for five years. I saw no nervousness on their face. The way they\u2019ve gone about training, the energy they\u2019ve trained with, was good to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cRohit is moving well and training well. So excited to see him go. Always nice to have his experience back as well. Just the calmness that he brings to the dressing room is always a positive to have. He's training well, he's moving well. So I know that he's also excited to go.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n