The first 20-man Afghanistan selection for the one-off Test match against New Zealand, which is scheduled to take place in Greater Noida from September 9 to 13, does not include star spinner Rashid Khan.
In March 2021, Rashid Khan made his debut for Afghanistan in an Abu Dhabi Test match.
Rashid’s absence from the team that would depart for India on August 28 to participate in a one-week preparatory camp was not explained in an ACB statement.
Recently, Rashid was playing as the captain of the Speen Ghar Tigers in the Shpageeza T20 tournament in Kabul. He scored 53 runs off of 26 balls and claimed a wicket in a league match that was cut short last week. Before that, a hamstring injury ended his time with the Trent Rockets in the men’s Hundred.
The chief selector, Ahmad Shah Sulimankhel, stated, “Twenty players have been selected for the training camp and a 15-member squad will be selected to play the only Test match against New Zealand after observing their performance and fitness.”
Meanwhile, seam-bowling all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai, who was included in the preliminary team, is expected to make his Test debut. Although Omarzai has established himself as a regular for Afghanistan in white-ball cricket, he has not been capped in Test cricket and has only played five long-format games in the first class. Sam Billings of England has taken Omarzai’s place in the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons CPL after he was recently fired. The September Test match against New Zealand and the ODI series against South Africa in the UAE will fall on the same day as the CPL 2024.
For their forthcoming series against South Africa and New Zealand, Afghanistan will have R Sridhar as their new assistant coach, while Hashmatullah Shahidi will continue to lead the team. As a member of Ravi Shastri’s support team, Sridhar was India’s fielding coach from 2014 till 2021.
Afghanistan will play their third Test of 2024 against New Zealand, making it their tenth overall and the most they have played in a calendar year.
Also Read: The South Africa and New Zealand series, R Sridhar has been named Afghanistan’s assistant coach
Preliminary Afghanistan squad for one-off Test vs New Zealand
The following people are listed as captains of Hashmatullah Shahidi: Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab?
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