The Afghanistan Cricket Board has officially named their squad for their upcoming ODI series against Ireland.
Afghanistan and Ireland are to lock horns on a three-match series in Oman later this month. The ODI games which they are about to play are a part of the International Cricket Council’s World Cup Super League. Originally, these games were scheduled to be played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. However, the games had been moved to Oman because of visa issues.
The Ireland team has already reached Abu Dhabi in preparation for the series. Meanwhile, the Afghanistan players who participated in a training camp in Nangarhar had their practice sessions disrupted due to unviable weather conditions. Still, they had already managed to name their 16-man squad for the upcoming match series.
As per ACB’s director of cricket Raees Ahmadzai, ‘We could not have a good preparation for the last few days because the weather is not good in Afghanistan as here it is very cold. We tried our best to select the best available squad. The side is very balanced as we included some youngster along with the seniors’.
So far, the players that had been included in the squad are Asghar Afghan, Rahmat Shah, Naveen-Ul-Haq, Hashmat Shahidi, Yamin Ahmadzai, Osman Ghani, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmanullah Gurboz, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Najib Zadran, Jawed Ahmadi, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbudin Naib, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Sharafuddin Ashraf.
To date, some of the players which had been named are still taking part in the ongoing Big Bash League in Australia. Namely, Khan for the Adelaide Strikers, Ur Rahman for Brisbane Heat, and Nabi for the Melbourne Renegades. Still, these p[layers are guaranteed to return to the Afghanistan team as they had been prohibited to opt themselves out.
The three ODIs between Afghanistan and Ireland are scheduled to be played on January 18, 21, and 23 at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground. To learn more about how this format of cricket is played, visit Betwala.
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