Afghanistan squad for Ireland T20Is announced, Rashid Khan returns

Afghanistan National Cricket Team have announced their strong squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Ireland National Cricket Team. The announcement was made via the official social media handles of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Wednesday, March 13.

The star leg-spinner and captain, Rashid Khan, has been named in the squad and he will be making a grand comeback to competitive cricket after being out of action for an extended period of time due to an injury.

Rashid Khan was last seen in action during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India where the Australia National Cricket Team broke the hearts of the Indians by defeating Rohit Sharma & Co. in the summit clash to lift yet another ICC championship.

Notably, Rashid Khan was in decent form during the World Cup 2023, and since then he has been out of action due to a back injury. During his rehabilitation period, Rashid Khan was traveling with the Afghanistan squad and he was in India for the three-match T20I series in January. However, he wasn’t fit enough to take part in the India T20Is.

He would be looking forward to delivering an instant impact in the series against the Ireland National Cricket Team as after that he would travel to India to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for Gujarat Titans (GT).

Since Rashid Khan missed out on the action for the Afghans, the spin-bowling duties fell on Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmad, Qais Ahmad, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Allah Ghazanfar, and Nangyal Kharoti, who did a good job for the team.

Along with Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman returns from injury for Afghanistan vs Ireland T20Is

Apart from Rashid, Mujeeb Ur Rahman also missed the matches for Afghanistan due to injury and he will also make his comeback to cricket in the Ireland T20I series.

“Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman continue to recover from their respective injuries and are unavailable for selection,” ACB chief selector Ahmad Shah Sulimankhil had said when picking the ODI team for the Ireland series.

The white-ball series between Afghanistan National Cricket Team and Ireland National Cricket Team consists of a three-match ODI series and a three-match T20I series. The ODI series has already concluded and the Afghans won it by the margin of 2-0. They won the first and third ODI matches by 35 runs and 117 runs respectively while the second match was abandoned.

The T20I series between the two teams is set to start on March 15 in Sharjah. The next two matches of the series will also be held in Sharjah on March 17 and 18. The Afghans will once enter the series as favorites and a win over the Irish team would boost their confidence as a T20I team as they are also set to take part in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, which will be held in the West Indies and the USA.

Afghanistan T20I squad for Ireland T20Is: Rashid Khan (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sediq Atal, Ijaz Ahmadzai, Ishaq Rahimi (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Nangyal Kharotai, Azmat Omarzai, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Wafadar Momand, Farid Malik, Naveen Ul Haq, FazalHaq Farooqi