AM Ghazanfar to miss Champions Trophy due to injury as well as the Indian Premier League for the Mumbai Indians.
AM Ghazanfar, the 18-year-old right-arm fingerspinner who has made such a bright start to his ODI career, has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy 2025.
A “fracture in the L4 vertebra” is said to be the reason for his absence.
Ghazanfar has now been replaced in the starting lineup by left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote, who was initially on the reserves list.
In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced that Ghazanfar “will be sidelined for a minimum of four months and will remain under treatment during this period” after suffering the injury during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe late last year. He will therefore also miss the IPL, which is scheduled to take place from March 21 to May 25. Ghazanfar recently signed his first IPL deal with the Mumbai Indians.
Following the tour of Zimbabwe, Ghazanfar, who has taken 21 wickets in 11 ODIs to date, participated in three matches for MI Emirates in the UAE’s ILT20 league in January. Despite bowling 7.1 overs in the three games and taking just one wicket at an economy rate of 9.48, he wasn’t as successful as MI Emirates had planned.
Kharote, 20, has played seven ODIs and six T20Is since making his international debut in March 2024. He hasn’t played for Afghanistan since the ODI series against Bangladesh in Sharjah last November, when he was instrumental in Afghanistan’s victory in the second game with 3 for 28.
Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, and Noor Ahmad are all excellent spinners for Afghanistan, but Mujeeb Ur Rahman is still out of the lineup. Mujeeb hasn’t played for Afghanistan since that tour of Zimbabwe and wasn’t included in the original Champions Trophy team. He played the entire SA20 season with Paarl Royals through January and the first part of February. According to the ACB statement, he will be sidelined “until he has fully recovered” from playing ODIs since the 2023 World Cup in India.