Afghanistan Spinner Rashid Khan To Miss First Test Against Zimbabwe Due To Injured Finger

Afghanistan will miss their star spinner Rashid Khan in their first Test against Zimbabwe as the leggie was ruled out due to a finger injury he sustained during his Pakistan Super League (PSL 2021) stint for Lahore Qalandars.

On February 22, playing for the Lahore Qalandars against Quetta Gladiators in a PSL encounter, Rashid hurt his finger while intercepting a hard-hit stroke from Chris Gayle. Rashid was seen in considerable pain and walked off the ground to get treated. He returned to complete his four-over spell and got the wicket of Chris Gayle.

Rashid Khan Suffered A Fracture To His Middle Finger; Ruled Out Of Zimbabwe Test In Abu Dhabi

The Afghanistan Cricket Board has given no official update on Monday, they had signaled Rashid was likely to miss the first Test in a media release issued on February 25. Also as per reports of ESPNCricinfo.com, Rashid suffered a minor fracture to the middle finger of his bowling hand, which is yet to heal.

This will force the leg-spinner to sit out of the first of the two Tests against Zimbabwe which will be played in Abu Dhabi. ESPNCricinfo further reported that Rashid had taken scans of the finger in Pakistan before exiting the PSL which revealed he had a fracture. He had “displaced” the intraarticular distal phalanx (the base of the top part of the middle finger).

Rashid Khan has been wearing a splint on his finger to protect it as he joined the Afghanistan squad and will remain in rehab until March 4 subject to the injury healing well before that.

Rashid has played 4 Tests for Afghanistan and has picked 23 wickets with a best of 11/104, which came in Afghanistan’s maiden Test win over Bangladesh, in which the leg-spinner was the captain of the team as well. Afghanistan had defeated Bangladesh by 224 runs in their own backyard of Chattogram.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the left-arm chinaman bowler Zahir Khan is the front runner to replace Rashid in the first Test. Zahir has played two Test matches thus far in his career.

Also Read: It Will Help Afghanistan If We Start Playing More Than Three To Four Tests A Year – Rashid Khan