Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has announced Afghanistan squad for one-off Test against India on June 14 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Skipper Asghar Stanikzai will be leading the squad after recovering from the illness that made him sit out of the World Cup qualifiers earlier this year. Afghanistan have relied on spinners to counter Indian batsmen. They have chosen five spinners in the squad.
Rashid Khan will be spearheading the spin-attack along with Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Zahir Khan and Hamza Kotak. Indian pitches are usually spin-friendly and Afghanistan are looking to make full use of it. Rashid and Mujeeb have the experience of bowling on Indian pitches because of the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018. Both Rashid and Mujeeb made a mark with their fiery leg-spinners and bamboozling googlies.
Zahir Khan missed out on his debut IPL season as he suffered a shoulder injury during Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) practice game. Zahir did well for Afghanistan in Under-19 World Cup 2018 which earned him a contract in IPL 2018 auctions. However, Afghanistan will be missing the services of their veteran fast-bowler Dawlat Zadran who was ruled out due to a knee injury.
Afghanistan squad for historic one-off Test against India#AFGvIND #HistoricTest pic.twitter.com/1mbZaQkszU
— Afghan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) May 29, 2018
Afghanistan Test squad:
Asghar Stanikzai (c), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Javed Ahmadi, Ihsanullah Jannat, Rahmat Shah, Nasir Jamal, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Zahir Khan, Hamza Hotak, Syed Ahmad Sherzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar Momand, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman.
Afghanistan also announced the three-match T20I squad against Bangladesh starting June 3
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Afghanistan T20I squad:
Asghar Stanikzai (c), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Najeebullah Tarakai, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi , Gulbadin Naib, Karim Jannat, Rashid Khan, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Shapoor Zadran, Aftab Alam.
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India Test squad against Afghanistan:
Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur
