Afghanistan Cricket Board Announce Squad for ICC World Cup Qualifiers

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) recently announced their 16-man squad for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe from 4th – 25th March 2018.

The top two teams from the competition will join the eight teams automatically qualified for the 2019 World Cup in England by their ICC Rankings.

Earlier, the tournament was chalked to take place in Bangladesh but looking at the possibility of automatic qualification of the Tigers; organizers had to look at a different venue. The other associates who bid for the tournament to be hosted were UAE and Ireland-Scotland.

Post the 2015 World Cup, the number of teams allowed to participate were reduced to ten. As a result, a new method of qualification was introduced.

The qualifiers will now be played between bottom four team placed in the ODI rankings, top four teams in the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship, and finally two teams from 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two which are yet to be determined.

The eight teams in the qualifiers are West Indies, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Ireland, Netherland, Scotland, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea.

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For Afghanistan, the onus of captaincy would again lie on Asghar Stanizhai, while their lion-hearted wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Shehzad will be back in their lineup after completing his ban imposed by ICC due to substance abuse. Franchise cricket stars Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Zadran and Mohammad Nabi have also been included in their squad.

Here’s the announcement from ACB:

@ACBofficials squad for the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 which will be held in Zimbabwe.
Read more: https://t.co/kWz4ucJVMw pic.twitter.com/UMuA5eJhLa

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) February 5, 2018

Afghanistan Squad:

Asghar Stanikzai (c), Mohammad Shehzad (wk), Ihsanullah Janat, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Javed Ahmadi, Samiullah Shinwari, Nasir Jamal, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Zadran, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran

Reserves: Noor Ali Zadran, Aftab Alam, Karim Janat, Afzar Zazai

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