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Credit: X

The National Selection Committee of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) have announced a 16-men squad for the one-off Test match tour to Sri Lanka next month, without their star player Rashid Khan. Afghanistan will play in the Test format against Sri Lanka for the first time at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Cricket Ground, Colombo, from February 2 onwards.

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As per the details on the official website of the ACB, Rashid Khan “continues to recover from the back surgery and is set to miss the one-off test match. With that, the National Selection Committee included the bowling all-rounder Qais Ahmad as his replacement in the Afghanistan squad for the one-off Test match.

ACB chairman Mirwais Ashraf spoke about Afghanistan’s upcoming first-ever Test assignment against Sri Lanka. He said, “It’s quite pleasing to be playing our first test against Sri Lanka, who have a rich history of playing test-match cricket. The year 2024 is packed with test cricket for us, as we will be playing several test matches during the year. Same as our white-ball lineups, we are committed to strengthening our red-ball cricket and building a formidable test side as well.”

The interim Chief Selector of the ACB, Ahmad Shah Sulimankhil, shared his thoughts about picking the squad for the upcoming Test match and said, “The team underwent a two-week preparation camp in Nangarhar followed by a 10-day conditioning camp in Abu Dhabi, which featured all the support staff to work with the players and ensure full preparation for the series. We have thoroughly monitored the camps and have picked the squad which includes several new faces who have excelled well during the recent domestic events.”

Afghanistan Squad for the one-off test against Sri Lanka:

Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmat Shah (vc), Ikram Alikhail (wk), Mohammad Ishaq (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran, Abdul Malik, Baheer Shah, Nasir Jamal, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Zia Ur Rehman Akbar, Yamin Ahmadzai, Nijat Masoud, Mohammad Saleem Safi, and Naveed Zadran.