The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Sunday, January 12, officially announced a strong Afghanistan National Cricket Team squad for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Team Afghanistan will arrive at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on the back of their sensational performances in the last two ICC tournaments – the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.
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Mujeeb Ur Rahman left the Afghanistan squad
The Afghanistan Cricket Board's National Selection Committee on Sunday announced the squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, which will be played from February 19 to March 9 across four venues in Dubai and Pakistan.
Hashmatullah Shahidi will lead the team in the 8-team competition and Rahmat Shah will be his deputy. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ikram Alikhil will be the two wicket-takers in the squad and star batsman Ibrahim Zadran, who was ruled out with an ankle injury, has made a comeback.
Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib are also present in the squad along with superstar spinner Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar and Noor Ahmad.
However, Mujeeb Ur Rahman was not included in the 15-man squad. The spinner has been left out as he is yet to fully recover from the injury and has been advised by his doctor to focus on T20s before returning to ODIs. Darwish Rasooli, Nangyal Kharoti and Bilal Sami were also kept in the reserves.
AfghanAtalan has had exceptional results in the last two ICC events – the ACB President
In an official statement issued by the board, ACB President Mr. Mirwais Ashraf said that they are confident that the team will perform well in the marquee tournament after their success in the last two ICC events.
Mirwais was also excited about the appointment of legendary Pakistani batsman Younis Khan as the team's mentor and stated that the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side would look forward to making full use of his experience. He elaborated:
“AfghanAtalan have performed exceptionally well in the last two ICC events, the CWC23 and the ICC World T20 2024. Their impressive performances in these two events along with their ODI series wins last year will undoubtedly boost their morale and help them to deliver an even better campaign. this time.”
“The appointment of mentors proved to be quite beneficial for us in both the last two events. With this success in mind, we have appointed Mr. Younis Khan who has extensive international and local experience and we look forward to making full use of his expertise during the event.”
In the same press release, ACB Acting Chief Selector Mr. Ahmad Suliman Khil spoke about the absence of spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and added that the Afghans are used to playing in the conditions that will be provided in Pakistan and UAE. He added that they have high expectations from the Afghanistan team and are hopeful that the players will deliver brilliant performances.
“Mujeeb Ur Rahman was not available for selection as he was advised by his doctor to focus on T20 for a while to ensure full recovery before returning to ODIs. This was also the reason why he missed the recently concluded ODI series against Zimbabwe”.
“The conditions in Pakistan are similar to Afghanistan and UAE, where we usually play. We will be conducting a multi-phase boot camp before embarking on our journey for the big event. Expectations are high and I hope the team will prepare well and deliver some excellent performances, just like in the last two World Cups,” he said.
Here is Afghanistan's 15-man squad for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy
Squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Rahmat Shah (VC), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar,, Noor Fazal Haq Farooqi, Naveed Zadran and Farid Ahmad Malik.
Reserve pool: Darwish Rasooli, Nangyal Kharoti and Bilal Sami