{"id":22687,"date":"2026-06-17T13:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/ind-vs-afg-why-is-nitish-kumar-reddy-not-playing-the-second-odi-against-afghanistan-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:27:11","slug":"ind-vs-afg-why-is-nitish-kumar-reddy-not-playing-the-second-odi-against-afghanistan-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/ind-vs-afg-why-is-nitish-kumar-reddy-not-playing-the-second-odi-against-afghanistan-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs AFG: Why is Nitish Kumar Reddy not playing the second ODI against Afghanistan? | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131792631,imgsize-104358,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/nitish-kumar-reddy.jpg\" alt=\"IND vs AFG: Why is Nitish Kumar Reddy not playing the second ODI against Afghanistan?\" title=\"Nitish Kumar Reddy (PTI Photo)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Nitish Kumar Reddy (PTI Photo)\">Nitish Kumar Reddy (PTI Photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: India suffered an injury setback ahead of the second ODI against Afghanistan in Lucknow on Wednesday, with all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy ruled out of the match due to a sore left thigh.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"2\"\/>The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that the 23-year-old was unavailable for selection because of a quadricep issue, with the medical staff closely tracking his recovery.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>&#8220;Nitish Kumar Reddy was unavailable for selection for the second ODI due to a sore left thigh. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring his progress,&#8221; the board said in a statement.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/>The injury forced India into a reshuffle as captain Shubman Gill revealed that the hosts were compelled to field only five bowling options for the contest.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>Leading the three-match series 1-0 after their victory in the opener, India made three changes to the side, bringing in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kuldeep Yadav, while fast bowler Prince Yadav was handed his international debut following an impressive IPL 2026 campaign for Lucknow Super Giants.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/> <\/p>\n<p><h2>Gill would have preferred to bowl first<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and opted to bowl first on a fresh-looking surface at the Ekana Stadium.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>Interestingly, Gill admitted India would also have chosen to chase had they won the toss.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>&#8220;Honestly, we would have bowled first as well because of our combination. We were forced to play with only five bowlers in this match,&#8221; Gill said at the toss.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>The India skipper stressed that the series was as much about preparing for challenging situations as it was about securing results.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>&#8220;If you&#8217;re chasing, have the habit of chasing big scores, and if you&#8217;re defending, how can we defend low totals and how clinical can we be with our bowling,&#8221; he added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Afghanistan make changes amid injury concerns<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/>Afghanistan too were hit by fitness issues ahead of the match. Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi missed the game through illness, while Azmatullah Omarzai was ruled out after suffering an injury during a training session.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>As a result, the visitors made three changes, with Darwish Rasooli and Bilal Sami receiving their maiden ODI caps.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>Shahidi said Afghanistan had learned valuable lessons from the opening defeat and hoped his side would show greater consistency after failing to build partnerships despite Rahmanullah Gurbaz&#8217;s century in Dharamsala.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>With the series on the line, both teams entered the contest with fresh faces and renewed challenges.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>IND vs AFG Playing XIs<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"42\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"cdatainfo   id-r-component \" data-pos=\"43\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India:<\/strong> Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Afghanistan:<\/strong> Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Darwish Rasooli, Rashid Khan, Nangeyalia Kharoti, AM Ghazanfar, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Bilal Sami<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/india-vs-afghanistan\/ind-vs-afg-why-is-nitish-kumar-reddy-not-playing-the-second-odi-against-afghanistan\/articleshow\/131792622.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nitish Kumar Reddy (PTI Photo) NEW DELHI: India suffered an injury setback ahead of the second ODI against Afghanistan in Lucknow on Wednesday, with all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy ruled out of the match due to a sore left thigh.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that the 23-year-old was unavailable for selection [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}