Afghanistan team suffered a massive blow as their spin wizard Rashid Khan has been ruled out of the three-match T20I series against India which is slated to kick off from January 11, Thursday.
The 25-year-old, who recently had lower-back surgery a few months ago, accompanied the team to Chandigarh and participated in the training sessions in the past few days. However, on the eve of the series' first match, Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran confirmed that the star spinner is still in the recovery process and will need some more time before he can be considered for team selection.
“He is not totally fit, but is travelling with the team. We hope that he gets fit as soon as we expect him to. He’s doing his rehab with the doctor, and we will miss him in the series,” Zadran said".
“Without Rashid, there are a few players that we have trust in. I can say, they will play good cricket,” Zadran said. “Others have also played a lot of cricket and I am sure they will perform well. Without Rashid, we will struggle because his experience is crucial to all of us, but this is cricket and you need to be ready for any kind of situation,” he added.
With Rashid unavailability, the responsibility of leading the spin bowling will fall to Noor Ahmad and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman. Meanwhile, the seasoned Mohammed Nabi will also be an option for selection in the team.
“Nabi is the most senior guy in our team and he should play. He has lots of experience,” Zadran said.
In 2018, Afghanistan played its inaugural Test match against India, and since then, the two teams haven't encountered each other in a bilateral series. The players are eager for the opportunity to showcase their skills against a formidable Indian team, which is studded with batting maestros like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
“Playing against India on their home soil is a difficult task, but we came here to play well against them and show our skills. We have lots of good T20 players, all our boys are playing good cricket, so I am sure they will play well. We will have a good series against India,” Zadran said.
Despite the cold conditions, the captain believes that dew won’t play a factor. “It’s cold and we have been training for the last two days and there was no due…” Zadran concluded said.
India’s T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
Afghanistan’s T20I squad: Ibrahim Zadran (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ikram Alikhil (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmaullah Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Qais Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib.
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