Afghanistan announce Test and T20I squads for Bangladesh tour

Afghanistan endured an extremely tough World Cup in England where they lost all the matches under Gulbadin Naib’s leadership. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) then appointed Rashid Khan as the captain across all the formats and the leggie will soon embark on his first full tour as the leader of the pack. The team is set to tour Bangladesh next month and the board has announced the Test and T20I squad for the same.

The tour comprises of the one-off Test match and the T20I tri-series with Zimbabwe as the third team. While the Test will be played on September 5, the tri-series is scheduled to get underway on September 13 and go on until September 24. Mohammad Shahzad is not the part of any squad as he was suspended for 12 months after breaching ACB’s code of conduct during the World Cup.

Only 7 players passed the fitness test

Moreover, the selectors didn’t have a good time picking the squad for the tour as only seven players passed the yo-yo fitness test according to reports in ESPNCricinfo. The report also stated that the rest of the players have been given an ultimatum of three months to pass the test which is a clear indication that the ACB is giving fitness the topmost priority in modern cricket.

As far as the squad is concerned, Shapoor Zadran has made it to the Test team while Mujeeb Ur Rahman has been left out. Ikram Ali Khil has replaced Shahzad in the whites and Rahmanullah Gurbaz has been picked to do the job behind the stumps in the T20Is. The selectors have picked some format specialists as well who are not the part of both the squads. Only Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Asghar Afghan are the part of both Test and T20I squads.

Afghanistan Test squad: Rashid Khan (C), Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Ihsanullah Janat, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Ikram Ali Khil, Zahir Khan, Javed Ahmadi, Sayed Shirzad, Yameen Ahmadzai, Afsar Zazai, Shapoor Zadran, Qais Ahmad.

Afghanistan T20I squad: Rashid Khan (C), Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Hazratullah Zazai, Najeeb Tarakai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Najibullah Zadran, Shahidullah Kamal, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Farid Ahmad Malik, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Fazal Niazai, Dawlat Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

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