(UTV|COLOMBO) – Afghanistan have named three uncapped players in an otherwise familiar-looking squad of 17 for the upcoming Asia Cup 2018.
Sayed Sherzad, Munir Ahmad and Wafadar are the three players in the squad to have never played One-Day International (ODI) cricket before. Of them, Wafadar and Sherzad have played Test cricket and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket respectively, but Ahmad is yet to represent Afghanistan.
Wafadar, the 18-year-old fast bowler who impressed in Afghanistan’s maiden Test match earlier this year against India, and Shirzad, a 23-year-old left-arm pacer who has played three T20Is, have been called up to bolster the pace attack.
Afghanistan’s strength will, expectedly, remain their spinners – Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman are all in the squad.
Ahmad, 22, has a good batting average across formats in domestic cricket – 49.86 in first-class matches and 48.42 in List A games – and he also doubles up as a back-up wicket-keeper for Mohammad Shahzad if needed.
Dawlat Zadran is the only omission from the side that won the One-Day International series in Ireland recently. Zadran did not feature in the playing XI in any of the three ODIs on the tour, where Afghanistan won the ODIs 2-1 to go with their 2-0 win in the T20Is.
Afghanistan begin their Asia Cup campaign with a match against Sri Lanka on 17 September.
Squad: Asghar Afghan (c), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Ihsanullah Janat, Javed Ahmadi, Rahmat Shah, Hashmat Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Najibullah Zadran, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Aftab Alam, Samiullah Shinwari, Munir Ahmad Kakar (wk), Sayed Ahmad Sherzad, Sharafudin Ashraf, Wafadar
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