T20 World Cup 2022: Gulbadin Naib replaces Hazratullah Zazai in Afghanistan's squad for remainder of tournament

The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 has approved Gulbadin Naib as a replacement for Hazratullah Zazai in the Afghanistan squad.

Naib who is a travelling reserve was named as a replacement after Zazai was ruled out due to an abdominal muscle strain.

The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.

The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 consists of Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager - Cricket (Chair); Chris Tetley, ICC Head of Events; Peter Roach, Cricket Australia, Shane Doyle, Men’s T20 World Cup Local Organising Committee; Shaun Pollock (Independent) and Ian Bishop (Independent).

Australian weather plays spoilsport to Afghanistan's World Cup dreams

Afghanistan have so far played only one match at the tournament, as their remaining two fixtures against New Zealand and Ireland were abandoned due to rain, without even the toss taking place, which has put their campaign in trouble.

Hazratullah Zazai was a part of the team’s playing combination when Afghanistan faced England in the campaign opener, but he managed to score only seven runs while opening the lineup for his team with the bat.

The 31-year-old Gulbadin Naib is a batting all-rounder, and his last international outing in the T20I format was against New Zealand when the two teams met back in November 2021. Since then, he has featured only in the 50-over format in international cricket.

Afghanistan are scheduled to play two more matches in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup 2022. They will lock horns with Sri Lanka on November 01, 2022 before taking on Australia for the first time ever, on November 04^th. Notably, that will be Afghanistan’s final fixture of the group stage.

Afghanistan are currently in the fifth position in the points table of group 1 with two points to their name, and they haven’t won a single match in the tournament so far. They bagged the two points as both their previous encounters were called off and the two teams shared a point each.

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