Pakistan cricket team is scheduled to tour the United Arab Emirates ( UAE) for the three-match One Day International (ODI) series against Afghanistan. The series will be part of the 2020–23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. The 3-match ODI series is scheduled to start in September 2021.
Afghanistan cricket board made the official announcement regarding their squad against Pakistan in the limited-overs tour through Twitter. Notably, Afghanistan has announced a jumbo squad of 21 players. Afghanistan cricket board has selected 17 main players and 4 reserves played in the team. Hashmatullah Shahidi has been appointed to lead the team.
PICS: In preparations for the upcoming ODI matches, our national players played their 1st training match at Kabul Cricket Stadium. pic.twitter.com/NmrwpcY8iK
— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) July 12, 2021
Meanwhile, both the cricket boards have mutually decided to play the limited-overs series in UAE. However, the venues haven’t been finalized as of now. Mainly there are three choices for the cricket boards including Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. One of the Afghanistan cricket board officials asserted:
“It [The series] will be played in UAE but we are yet to confirm the venue. We are discussing to host it either in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or in Dubai.”
Afghanistan officials keen to sort the visa problems soon
On May 9 the ACB chairman Farhan Yusefzai met H.E. Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Hussain. Saeed is the secretary-general of UAE’s General Authority of Sports. The reason behind the meeting was to discuss logistics and visa-related problems for the teams. Notably, team Afghanistan faced visa-related issues while hosting Ireland in January.
“We hope our UAE visa problem will be sorted out soon,” stated the official on Cricbuzz.
Also, Afghanistan and Pakistan have met various times in the ICC and Asian Cricket Council events. However, still, the teams haven’t played a bilateral series against each other. Notably, Afghanistan and Pakistan have faced each other in single ODI and T20I. But, they haven’t faced each other on a complete bilateral series before.
Afghanistan squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Sediq Atal, Rahmat Shah (Vc), Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Najib Zadran, Ikram Alikhil, Shahid Kamal, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Azmat Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Abdul Rahman, Naveen Ul Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad Lakanwal
Reserve players: Yousuf Zazai, Saleem Safi, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Qais Ahmad