Afghanistan to host South Africa for the first-ever bilateral series between the two nations
Afghanistan will be hosting South Africa for the first-ever bilateral cricket series between the two nations. The series will be played in the month of September. The dates for the series have been announced by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), who expressed their desire to play even more top-tier teams.
The series marks a historic occasion for both teams who will be playing each other for the first time in a bilateral series. All the matches will be played at the iconic Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah, UAE.
Schedule for the ODI Series between Afghanistan and South Africa
All the matches will be ODIs which means it will be a great preparation for both the teams for the 2025 Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in February-March next year. The three ODIs will be played on September 18, 20, and 22 respectively.
ACB chairman Mirwais Ashraf was pleased to announce the historic occasion. “The recent ICC meeting was quite productive for us. Apart from confirming dates for the one-off Test match against New Zealand, we reached an agreement with Cricket South Africa for a series of three ODIs in September,” Ashraf was quoted as saying by the ACB.
"These fixtures were not initially part of our FTP. Still, based on our productive negotiations with our counterparts at Cricket South Africa, we concluded that we will host the Proteas for an ODI series in September. They are an excellent team, and we are eagerly looking forward to hosting them and playing them regularly in the future,” he added in his statement.
"Playing big teams regularly is a crucial part of our growth process" - ACB CEO Naseeb Khan
Meanwhile, ACB CEO Naseeb Khan expressed his pleasure to host South Africa and claimed that Afghanistan has made significant strides in the past few years by playing top teams regularly. He also hoped for more matches against top teams in the upcoming future.
“We have consistently played higher-ranked teams over the past two or three years, which has significantly improved the quality of our game. Competing against top-tier teams allows our players to identify areas for improvement and boosts their confidence. Playing big teams regularly is a crucial part of our growth process, and we aim to provide more opportunities for our team to compete in bilateral cricket against these top teams,” Naseeb Khan stated.
“Our team has performed well in ICC events over the last two years, and we are focused on making our team equally competitive in bilateral cricket,” he added.
Afghanistan have performed significantly well in the recent ICC events. In the ODI World Cup 2023 played in India, they defeated big teams like Pakistan and England to create history. Their performance went up to the next level in the T20 World Cup 2024, where they reached the semi-finals but lost to South Africa. This was their first-ever semi-final in a senior ICC event.
Afghanistan and South Africa have faced each other twice before in the ODI format and South Africa have emerged victorious in both of them. The first match was played in the ODI World Cup 2019 in Cardiff while the second match between these two teams was played in the ODI World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad.
