Afghanistan confident over Rashid Khan's fitness for Pakistan series

Rashid Khan is one of the best spinners playing in the world at the moment. The 24-year-old has made his presence felt for whichever team he plays, irrespective of the opposition. The leg-spinner has been struggling with a back issue in recent times, and that forced him to skip the Hundred.

Rashid was rested for Afghanistan's one-off Test and a couple of white-ball matches against Bangladesh in June-July. After the completion of the multi-format series, the star all-rounder travelled to the USA to take part in the inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC). He represented MI New York in the six-team tournament and helped his side win the final against Seattle Orcas with a three-wicket haul.

Rashid was scheduled to feature in the Hundred for Trent Rockets, but he decided to give the tournament a skip in order to recover from his injury. Afghanistan's next assignment is a three-match ODI series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka prior to the Asia Cup. The Afghanistan Cricket Board feels that the No. 1 ranked T20 bowler will be fit ahead of this series.

"He (Rashid) skipped the Hundred for these games (against Pakistan) as he wanted some rest to be fully fit for the Pakistan game. Consistently he is playing cricket so he took a rest from Hundred for the Pakistan series. "We had a preparation camp in Kabul, and the next camp will be in Hambantota from August 10, and he (Rashid) will join the camp in Hambantota," ACB chief selector Asadullah Khan told Cricbuzz recently.

Asadullah Khan explains benefits of Afghanistan's ODI series win against Bangladesh

Defeating Bangladesh in an ODI match in their own country is an arduous task, let alone beating them in an ODI series. However, Hashmatullah Shahidi's men managed to do that as they won the ODI series 2-1. According to Asadullah Khan, Afghanistan's series win has given the team a lot of confidence, and whatever mistakes they made would be worked upon by head coach Jonathan Trott and Co.

"That ODI series win against Bangladesh gives us lots of confidence as a batting and bowling unit. We won in Bangladesh, which means that our preparation was very good and some of the mistakes that we made in Bangladesh, I am sure our coach Jonathon and his staff are working very hard on that," Khan concluded.

The first ODI between Afghanistan and Pakistan will be held in Hambantota on Tuesday, August 22.