The Afghanistan cricket team faces a significant setback before their one-off Test against New Zealand, as top-order batsman Ibrahim Zadran is unavailable due to an injury. The match is set to start on Monday (September 9) at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida.
Ibrahim has proven reliable as a batsman in all three formats for Afghanistan and is a key player in their batting lineup. Sadly he suffered a left leg-ankle sprain which ruled him out from participating in the forthcoming match and hence destabilized the batting structure of the Asian side.
On their X handle; Afghanistan Cricket Board shared news of what was going on concerning Ibrahim revealing that he will not be at the 3-match ODI series against South Africa and also miss out on the Test. ACB’s official statement said:
“Afghanistan’s prolific top-order batter @IZadran18 has been ruled out of the upcoming one-off #AFGvNZ Test and the 3-match #AFGvSA ODI series due to an ankle sprain in his left leg. Get well Soon, Ibra!”
https://x.com/acbofficials/status/1832834454953644293?s=46
Afghanistan squad for the Test vs New Zealand:
Rahmat Shah, Riaz Hassan, Khalil Ahmed, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Ikram Alikhil(w), Bahir Shah, Shahidullah Kamal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Shamsur Rahman, Zia-ur-Rehman, Afsar Zazai, Nijat Masood, Abdul Malik
“If we get a lot more chances with the good teams, we will improve”-Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi before the Test vs. New Zealand
In front of a group of reporters, before the unusual test match with New Zealand, Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi pointed out that his team needed to face good teams on a regular basis in order to enhance their long format cricket. ESPNCricinfo reported him saying:
“If we get a lot more chances with the good teams, we will improve, and our cricket board is doing that job. Like with New Zealand, if you see their history of Test cricket and where they are in the rankings right now, it’s a good opportunity for us and hopefully our cricket board will try harder to give us opportunities against good teams in the future.”
He continued:
“I think if we get more chances on regular basis, we will improve a lot because if we see as a team and as a country, we are brave people and we always accept challenges. If we get three- or four-match series in one time, I think it will be very good for us as a side. If you look at our past, we get one Test match and we start preparing for that ten days before. So it’s not easy to come to red-ball cricket.”
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