Former Indian opening batter and commentator Aakash Chopra has reckoned that all-rounder Suryansh Shedge could return to the Indian squad if Nitish Kumar Reddy gets ruled out of the three-match T20I series vs Afghanistan.
Notably, the Indian squad includes Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah and Harshit Rana, subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI CoE. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra revealed a like-for-like swap for Reddy.
“They have made up their mind to go with an almost full-strength Indian team. This team is along the expected lines. The big thing is the names after which a star has been placed, which means those players might not be available, or if they get a fitness certificate from the Center of Excellence (CoE), then they will participate,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“The first name in that is Nitish Kumar Reddy’s. Hardik (Pandya) isn’t available in any case. Suryansh Shedge was given chances in place of NKR on the England tour. The expectation was that NKR would return if he became fit, but is he fully fit? We don’t know yet. So it could be a like-for-like swap. If Nitish Kumar Reddy isn’t declared fit, Suryansh Shedge could walk into the team again,” he added.
Notably, Shedge, who was part of the England and Ireland tours, managed to score only eight runs and went wicketless in seven overs. On the other hand, Reddy suffered a quadriceps injury during the Afghanistan ODI series in June 2026.
India squad: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Tilak Varma (VC), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
NOTE: * Subject to fitness clearance
