Fast bowler Shapoor Zadran is set to feature for Afghanistan again in the upcoming T20I series against Ireland after being named in the squad.
Shapoor, who is one of the most recognised cricketers from the country and even starred in their first-ever World Cup win in 2015, hasn’t played a match for the national team in nearly a year now.
The 32-year old last played in an ODI match – coincidentally against Ireland – but is most known for his exploits in the shortest format of the game and even prefers to focus on T20 cricket domestically.
His last bit of top-flight cricket action came in the T10 League towards the end of last year.
Afghanistan will face Ireland over three T20Is to be played in New Delhi on March 6, 8 and 10.
This will be the first series that Afghanistan will play with Asghar Afghan back as captain across formats.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board had reappointed former captain Afghan as the skipper across all formats of the game in December.
The decision taken by the ACB’s top management officials, comes seven months after Asghar was stripped from captaincy across formats.
Afghanistan’s poor show in a ‘home series’ against West Indies where they lost all in three formats may have prompted the authorities to call back Afghan.
In April 2019, two months before the ODI World Cup, ACB had named Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan as replacements of Asghar in the Test, ODI and T20 teams respectively.
However, after the World Cup after a disappointing show in England, where Afghanistan lost all its nine matches, all-rounder Rashid was named skipper across all formats.
Afghanistan T20I squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai, Karim Janat, Najib Zadran, Asghar Afghan (capt), Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen ul Haq, Shapoor Zadran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Qais Ahmad, Azmatullah Omarzai, Samiullah Shinwari, Usman Ghani.
Comments
0 comment