Predicting Afghanistan’s 15-player squad for Asia Cup 2022

The schedule for the Asia Cup 2022 was unveiled on Tuesday, August 2. While all eyes will be on the mouth-watering clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan on August 28, it will be Afghanistan taking on the five-time winners Sri Lanka in the curtain-raiser at the Dubai International Stadium on the 27th.

Afghanistan might not yet have any major achievement to boast of as of now, but they are definitely a force to reckon with in the upcoming six-team tournament. The 2018 edition was their best performance where they handed heavy defeats to the eventual runners-up Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and also managed a tie against a second-string Indian team.

This year, the Afghans will have their eyes set on the biggest prize in Asia and would be competing against the cricketing giants of the continent. They have many key players both in batting and bowling who are well accustomed to the UAE conditions having played a lot of cricket over there in the past.

While Afghanistan are still considered underdogs in world cricket, they can decimate any opposition on their day with collective performances, and thus, they might not be the title contenders on paper but would be expected to showcase outstanding performances in the upcoming T20 tournament for Asian supremacy under the guidance of the legendary South African all-rounder Lance Klusener.

As far as Afghanistan’s performances in the T20Is this year are concerned they blanked the Netherlands 3-0 at home and defeated Zimbabwe by a similar margin away from home and then went on to win a 2-1 win in the away series against Bangladesh.

The onus will be on the T20I skipper Mohammad Nabi to lead the Afghans from the front in the upcoming Asia Cup 2022. Apart from the responsibility of leading the side from the front, Nabi is also a very accomplished performer in the shortest format and currently occupies the top spot in the ICC Men’s T20I All-Rounder Rankings.

Apart from Mohammad Nabi, all eyes will be on leggie Rashid Khan who has the skill to bamboozle any world-class batter and also has the extra ability to be a handy middle-order batter in the middle and death overs. Khan presently occupies the fourth spot in the T20I Bowlers Rankings.

Other players who can be a force to reckon with in the batting and bowling departments include the likes of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Usman Ghani, Noor Ahmed, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Nijat Masood, Ihsanullah Janat, Fareed Ahmad Malik, etc.

Let us have a look at Afghanistan’s predicted squad for the Asia Cup:

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Ghani, Darwish Rasooli, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat, Fazalhaq Farooqi,, Nijat Masood, Ihsanullah Janat, Fareed Ahmad Malik,Noor Ahmed, Sharafuddin Ashraf