Rashid Khan makes a return for the SA ODI series after making a full recovery. It will be his first ODI since the 2023 World Cup.
Rashid Khan has made his way back to the Afghanistan side for the One-Day series vs South Africa.
However, Afghanistan continue to miss the services of mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Mujeeb is still recovering from a sprain in his left index finger.
Afghanistan chief selector said offspinner AM Ghazanfar “will cover” for Mujeeb against South Africa.
Rashid’s return helps make up for Mujeeb and Noor’s absence. Rashid was ruled out of Afghanistan’s ongoing one-off Test against New Zealand. He had undergone back surgery after last year’s World Cup, and was thus out of action for four months.
Rashid has only played T20s, following up his comeback series with the IPL, T20 World Cup, MLC, the Hundred, and the Shpageeza Cricket League (SCL).
Afghanistan have also called up uncapped medium-pace bowler Bilal Sami, and top-order batters Darwish Rasooli and Abdul Malik. Rasooli has played seven T20Is and Malik has played two Tests, Sami is yet to represent Afghanistan in any format.
Malik acts as cover for the injured opening batter Ibrahim Zadran, whose ankle sprain first forced him to miss the one-off Test against New Zealand, and now rules him out of the ODIs against South Africa as well.
On September 18, the three-match ODI series gets underway. All of the matches will take place in Sharjah. Afghanistan and South Africa have only previously met at the World Cups in 2019 and 2023. This will be their first bilateral ODI series.
Afghanistan will use this series as a warm-up for the Champions Trophy early in 2023, where they made their debut after placing sixth in the 2023 World Cup league stage.