Ahead of their inaugural Test against India from June 14-18 in Bengaluru, Afghanistan was dealt a major blow after paceman Dalwat Zadran was ruled out with a knee injury.
Zadran was also ruled out of his side’s three Twenty20 Internationals against Bangladesh, starting June 3 in Dehradun, an International Cricket Council (ICC) release stated.
According to the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB), the 30-year-old pacer hurt himself during training in India and was advised a month’s rest.
Zadran, who has 137 wickets from 105 international matches, has been in good form for Afghanistan. During their title run in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 in Zimbabwe earlier this year, he picked up eight wickets and also took a hat-trick in the warm-up match before the main tournament.
The absence of an experienced paceman capable of hitting 140kph could leave the team with some concerns.
The team has been training at Greater Noida under coach Phil Simmons ahead of these matches. ACB still has to announce the full squad members of the upcoming important series.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and India have already announced their squads for the respective clashes against Afghanistan.
Bangladesh T20 squad for the Afghanistan series: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Ariful Haque, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nazmul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Hider, Rubel Hossain, Abu Jayed.
Indian squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur.
