Srinagar: After having missed recent two matches of ODI series against Sri Lanka, Afghanistan ace spinner Rashid Khan has now been rested for the one off Test match against Bangladesh.
Afghanistan Cricket Board on Wednesday announced the 15 member squad for the Test match which doesnt include star spinner Rashid Khan.
Three uncapped players in the squad are- pacer Ibrahim Abdulrahimzai and Nijat Masoud along with young leg spinner Izharulhaq.
The match is scheduled to begin at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from June 14.
Rashid recently skipped the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka but came back to play the final game that his side lost. Before that Rashid Khan played in IPL 2023 for Gujarat Titans which lost to CSK in final. Soon after that it was reported that Khan has suffered injury and will not play first two ODI’s. Now after that he has been left out of only Test match citing rest as the reason, which most likely looks more as fatigue issue rather than any injury.
“He(Rashid) was rested from the lone Test match against Bangladesh as he played too much non-stop cricket and we do not want to take risk with him taking his back injury into consideration,” Raees Ahmadzai, Afghanistan assistant coach, was quoted by Cricbuzz.
Squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Rahmat Shah (VC), Afsar Zazai (WK), Ikram Alikhail (WK), Ibrahim Zadran, Abdul Malik, Baheer Shah, Nasir Jamal, Karim Janat, Zahir Khan, Izharulhaq Naweed, Hamza Hotak, Ibrahim Abdulrahimzai, Yamin Ahmadzai and Nijat Masoud.
Zia ur Rahman Akbar, Noor Ali Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai and Sayed Ahmad Shirzad are part of the reserve set-up for the tour.