Hardik Pandya, the Indian all-rounder, will most likely miss the T20I series against Afghanistan owing to ankle injury recuperation, but he will be ready for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2024.

The three-match T20I series against Afghanistan will be India's final international assignment, taking place from January 11-17, before the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, which will take place in June at West Indies/USA.

Pandya was injured in the ICC World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh in Pune and has been sidelined since. He appeared in four matches, taking five wickets with the best bowling statistics of 2/34, and scored 11* in his sole batting against Australia.

He missed the home T20I series against Australia and the white-ball leg of the South Africa tour. Suryakumar Yadav led India in all the T20I matches while KL Rahul led the team in ODIs in the absence of Pandya and regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who requested some time off from white-ball cricket after the World Cup final against Australia.

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Hardik Pandya not playing in Afghanistan T20Is and Suryakumar Yadav also ruled out due to his ankle injury, means that BCCI selectors might have to name a new captain with names like Ravindra Jadeja being floated around, given his vice-captaincy experience during the South Africa T20I series.

But with Jadeja probably to be part of the five-Test series against England at home, workload management could be prioritized.

Pandya was traded from the Gujarat Titans (GT) to his former franchise, the Mumbai Indians (MI), in November of this year. The all-rounder captained GT for two years, spearheading their campaign with elegance.

MI selected Pandya as captain, and he will have big shoes to fill for Rohit Sharma, who led the side to five IPL titles.

(ANI inputs)