BAN vs AFG: Rashid Khan rested for one-off Bangladesh Test

Posted at: June 07, 2023

BAN vs AFG: Rashid Khan rested for one-off Bangladesh Test

BAN vs AFG: The ACB has announced a 15-member squad for the upcoming one-off Test against Bangladesh. There comes a major blow for the Afghanistan squad as the board has rested Rashid Khan for the Test match. The announced squad includes three uncapped players such as pacer Ibrahim Abdulrahimzai and Nijat Masoud along with young legspinner Izharulhaq for the fixture which is slated to be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from June 14.

The absence of star player Rashid Khan came as a major surprise for the fans as he was the star performer in Afghanistan’s last Test against Bangladesh where he ended up picking 11 wickets to clinch a historic win in 2019. Rashid Khan skipped the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka but then came back to play the final match that his team lost.

“He(Rashid) was rested from the lone Test match against Bangladesh as he played too much non-stop cricket and we do not want to take a risk with him taking his back injury into consideration,” Raees Ahmadzai, Afghanistan assistant coach, confirmed Cricbuzz on Wednesday (June 7).

With Ahmadzai’s statement, it’s clear that the management rested Rashid Khan for the series to manage his workload. He also said that they are looking forward to testing how their spinner Izharulhaq plays under the pressure of International cricket. Medium-pace bowling all-rounder Karim Janat who displayed an all-round performance in the recently concluded Ahmad Shah Abdali First Class Tournament and was awarded the best player of the tournament, has also been called up to the side.

BAN vs AFG: Afghanistan Squad for the one-off test against Bangladesh

Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Rahmat Shah (VC), Afsar Zazai (WK), Ikram Alikhail (WK), Ibrahim Zadran, Abdul Malik, Baheer Shah, Nasir Jamal, Karim Janat, Zahir Khan, Izharulhaq Naweed, Hamza Hotak, Ibrahim Abdulrahimzai, Yamin Ahmadzai and Nijat Masoud.

Zia ur Rahman Akbar, Noor Ali Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai and Sayed Ahmad Shirzad are part of the reserve set-up for the tour.

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Sarah Shaikh

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