Newly-appointed skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi will be leading a fresh-looking Afghanistan ODI squad for their three-match series against Pakistan scheduled for September. The Afghans have made as many as eight changes to their 50-over squad for the series, part of the ongoing ICC Super League.
Sediq Atal, Shahidullah Kamal, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Abdul Rahman are the five uncapped players that have been handed call-ups to the 17-man squad. The squad also sees the returns of Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat and Ikram Alikhal, who were left out of Afghanistan’s previous ODI series in January against Ireland in UAE.
These players are filling in for the likes of Asghar Afghan, all-rounder Gulbadin Naib, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani, Yamin Ahmadzai, Sayed Shirzad.
Among the uncapped talents, youngster Noor is the rapidly progressing left-arm wrist-spinner, who has featured in the Big Bash League (BBL) and Pakistan Super League (PSL) but is yet to don the Afghanistan jersey at the highest level.
Inexperienced middle-order batsman Atal has entered the Afghanistan ODI squad after showing good promise in the T20s for Kabul Eagles. Farooqi, the left-arm seam bowler, is another encouraging prospect, who did well in the U-19 World Cup last year in South Africa. Farooqi has played one T20I match for Afghanistan and was notably a net bowler during IPL 2020 for three-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Kamal, having featured in one Test match already for his country, has now got his chance in the ODIs as well after pressing for selection with decent List A performances for Mis Ainak Region. In his early days as a List A player, the 22-year-old left-hand batsman Kamal has made 876 runs from 31 innings for his region with two hundreds and four fifties. Kamal can also bowl some handy left-arm spin if required.
The dates and venues for the series are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Afghanistan squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Sediq Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najib Zadran, Ikram Alikhal, Shahid Kamal, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmat Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Abdul Rahman, Naveen Ul Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Noor Ahmad.
