Bumrah, like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar, had been named in the initial squad for the Afghanistan T20Is, but subject to fitness clearance. All of them have been cleared for the series starting September 13.
Rana, however, picked up a new injury while doing his rehab. He “was progressing well during his rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). He sustained a rectus femoris strain while bowling during a match simulation on September 7 and has subsequently been ruled out,” a BCCI release said on Thursday.
Thakur, 27, made his T20I debut in July when he played two games in Zimbabwe and picked up two wickets in each of them. He was last in action for Central Zone in their Duleep Trophy semi-final against East Zone, where he picked up three wickets in the first innings, including that of Ishan Kishan, and one in the second, of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Thakur has also played four seasons of the IPL, two each for Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings.
The Afghanistan T20Is will all be played in Delhi on September 13, 15 and 17 before the same India squad flies to Japan for the Asian Games. India will begin their campaign in the quarter-finals stage on September 28, with the semi-finals scheduled for October 1 and the final on October 3.
India’s updated squad for Afghanistan T20Is and Asian Games
Shreyas Iyer (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma (vice-capt), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur.