T20 World Cup: Afghanistan name revised squad for T20 World Cup, Mohammad Nabi to lead

Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) have announced the revised squad for the T20 World Cup. The team will be led by Mohammad Nabi, who was named the skipper after Rashid Khan stepped down as Afghanistan captain following disagreements with the ACB over the squad for T20 World Cup. Rashid was disappointed that ACB didn't consult him before announcing the squad. From the squad released earlier, Sharafuddin Ashraf and Dawlat Zadran have been left out of the main squad and put into the reserves category, while Shapoor Zadran, Qais Ahmad, and Afsar Zazai have missed out completely.

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Left arm seamer Fareed Ahmad, who was earlier in the reserved category, has been added to the 15-man squad. All-rounder Samiullah Shinwari and young pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi will travel with the squad as reserves. All the teams that have secured a Super 12s berth can make changes till October 15.

Afghanistan have not played a lot of cricket of late. They were scheduled to play a series against Pakistan but that was cancelled after Taliban swept to power in the country. There were severe doubts about Afghanistan’s participation in the showpiece event but the new rulers revealed that the cricketing activities in the country can continue as normal. Afghanistan’s last series was in March earlier this year against Zimbabwe.

Nabi has previously led the team between 2013-2015 and was the captain of the side in the ICC ODI World Cup in Australia. He will be part of the leadership group that has Andy Flower as consultant, Lance Klusener as head coach and Shaun Tait as bowling coach.

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The team is clubbed with India, Pakistan and New Zealand in Group B and play their first game on October 25 against a qualifier team.

Updated squad: Mohammad Nabi (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Gulbadin Naib, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen Ul Haq