NEW DELHI — India and Afghanistan will play a three-match Twenty20 International series in Delhi in September, with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India confirming that Afghanistan will host the matches at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium, the Times of India reported on Aug. 12.
The series will begin on Sept. 13, followed by matches on Sept. 15 and Sept. 17, with all three games scheduled at the same venue. Afghanistan will be the designated home team even though the series will be played in India, continuing a practice the Afghan board has used for international fixtures because matches have not resumed in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Cricket Board Chairman Mirwais Ashraf said India was an appropriate venue for a series of the scale and importance of the upcoming fixtures. “We have hosted our home fixtures in both India and the UAE in recent years,” Ashraf said in a statement, adding that India provided an “excellent setting” for the event.
BCCI president Mithun Manhas said the Indian board remained committed to supporting the development of Afghan cricket. “We believe there is scope to do more together and will continue to support Afghanistan cricket while strengthening the relationship between the two cricketing nations,” Manhas said.
The series will be only the second bilateral T20I contest between the teams. India hosted Afghanistan for their first bilateral T20I series in January 2024, winning all three matches in Mohali, Indore and Bengaluru.
The teams most recently met in June during Afghanistan’s multi-format tour of India. India won the one-off Test by an innings and 300 runs before completing a 3-0 victory in the ODI series. The BCCI had officially announced that June tour as comprising one Test and three ODIs.
The September T20I series comes shortly before the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi, Japan, where men’s cricket will be played in the T20 format. India’s Asian Games squad has already been announced, with Shreyas Iyer named captain, according to the Times of India. The Afghanistan matches will provide the teams with their final confirmed bilateral T20I fixtures before the continental tournament begins.
The three matches remain scheduled for Sept. 13, 15 and 17 at Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in Delhi, with Afghanistan designated as the host side.
