Afghanistan announces squad for their first bilateral series against West Indies

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Tuesday announced the squad for their series against West Indies. This will be Afghan’s first-ever bilateral series against the Caribbeans scheduled to be played in June. Their tour will include three Twenty20 internationals & 3 ODIs each. It will also mark Afghanistan’s first full series against a full member nation other than Zimbabwe.

Former captain and now the national chief selector of Afghan cricket, Nawroz Mangal, told reporters that West Indies is an experienced team and therefore the Afghanistan Cricket Board has done its best to select the most experienced players for the series. Mangal retired from international cricket at the age of 32 in January 2017.

He has played 49 ODIs & 32 T20I for the national team scoring 1,139 and 505 runs respectively. The Afghanistan cricket team will travel to India on 11th May to play few practice games for 15 days as they prepare themselves for their tour against WI.

West Indies are placed just one above Afghanistan in the ODI team rankings. Though, West-Indies are the World Twenty20 champions, their only defeat in the 2016 campaign came against Afghanistan. The sides have never faced each other in an ODI.

Altogether, it will be an interesting series and taking into account their previous record West Indies will surely not consider the Afghans as the underdogs.

16-member squad for ODIs: Asghar Stanikzai (C), Noor Ali Zadran, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani, Rahmat Shah Zurmatai, Nasir Jamal, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari, Gulbuddin Naib, Rashid Khan, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Shapoor Zadran, Hamza Hotak, Dawlat Zadran, Afsar Zazai and Farid Malik.

Reserve players: Naveen-ul-Haq, Sharafuddin Ashraf.

15-member squad for T20s: Asghar Stanikzai, Noor Ali Zadran, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari, Najib Zadran, Gulbuddin Naib, Rashid Khan, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Shapoor Zadran, Hamza Hotak, Farid Malik, Dawlat Zadran and Karim Janat.

Reserve players: Naveen-ul-Haq, Afsar Zazai and Sharafuddin Ashraf.