No Rashid Khan In Afghanistan's Preliminary Squad For One-Off Test Against New Zealand In Greater Noida

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce a 20-member preliminary squad for the one-off Test against New Zealand. The Afghans will host the Kiwis in a red-ball match at Greater Noida’s Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex from September 9–13.

Hashmatullah Shahidi will lead the side, but there is no place for Rashid Khan in the squad. Rashid, who is Afghanistan’s T20I captain, has 34 wickets to his name in five red-ball matches played so far. He last played a Test match for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi on March 10–14, 2021, and picked up a total of 11 wickets, which includes 7 for 137 runs in the second innings.

According to ACB spokesperson Sayed Naseem Sadaat, Rashid was rested as he is yet to attain the peak fitness required to play longer-version cricket.

“Rashid was injured recently. He was given three to four weeks rest and although he played number of Shpageeza T20 matches, for longer format he is not healthy enough( to take the load),” Sadaat was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“That’s why we will be waiting for him and we hope he will return for the three-match ODI series against South Africa,” he added.

Apart from Rashid, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Karim Janat were also not included in the squad, but there was a place for Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib, and Azmatullah Omarzai.

The 20-member squad will leave for India on August 28 and attend a one-week preparation camp in Greater Noida.

The officials from the selection committee said that the final squad will be announced at the end of the camp, considering the players’ performance and fitness. Ahmad Shah Sulimankhel, the Chief Selector, said, “20 players have been selected for the training camp, and a 15-member squad will be selected to play the only Test match against New Zealand after observing their performance and fitness.”

ACB Chairman Mirwais Ashraf: “I am happy to see some youngsters in the squad who performed well in domestic cricket and have gotten the opportunity to be part of the test squad for this test match.”

He further added that ACB is delighted to be embarking on its maiden bilateral event with New Zealand, which is a quality side in test cricket, and looks forward to a competitive event between black caps and Afghan Atalan.”

According to the ACB release, the 20 players picked in the preliminary squad attended a full-package preparation camp in Nangarhar province, which has similar conditions to India.

Afghanistan’s squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhel (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, and Yama Arab.