On Sunday, January 12, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) officially announced the strong Afghanistan National Cricket Team squad for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Team Afghanistan will make it to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 thanks to their sensational performances in the last two ICC tournaments – the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 and the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
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Mujeeb Ur Rahman left out of Afghanistan squad
On Sunday, Afghanistan Cricket Board’s national selection committee announced the squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, which will be played from February 19 to March 9 across four venues in Dubai and Pakistan.
Hashmatullah Shahidi will lead the team in the 8-team competition and Rahmat Shah will be his deputy. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ikram Alikhil will be the two wicketkeepers in the squad and star batsman Ibrahim Zadran, who was sidelined with an ankle injury, is back.
Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib are also present in the squad along with superstar Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar and Noor Ahmad.
However, Mujeeb Ur Rahman was not included in the 15-man squad. The spinner has been left out as he is yet to fully recover from the injury and has been advised by his doctor to focus on T20s before returning to ODIs. Also, Darwish Rasooli, Nangyal Kharoti and Bilal Sami were kept in reserve.
AfghanAtalan has shown outstanding results in the past two ICC events – ACB Chairman
In the official statement published by the board of directors, the president of ACB, Mr. Mirwais Ashraf, stated that they are confident that the team will perform well in the main tournament after their success in the last two ICC events.
Mirwais was also delighted with the appointment of legendary Pakistani batsman Younis Khan as the team’s mentor and stated that the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side will look forward to making full use of his expertise. He elaborated:
“AfghanAtalan have performed exceptionally well in the past two ICC events, CWC23 and ICC World T20 2024. Their impressive performances in these two events coupled with last year’s ODI series wins will undoubtedly boost their morale and help them deliver an even better campaign this time around.”
“The appointment of a mentor has proved very useful for us in both of the last two events. Given this success, we have appointed Mr. Younis Khan, who has extensive international and local experience, and we look forward to making full use of his expertise during the event.”
In the same press release, the interim chief selector of ACB, Mr. Ahmad Suliman Khil spoke about the absence of spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and added that the Afghans are used to playing in the conditions that will be offered in Pakistan and the UAE. He added that they have high expectations from the Afghanistan team and hope that the players will give brilliant performances.
“Mujeeb Ur Rahman was not available for selection as his doctor advised him to focus on T20 for some time to ensure his full recovery before returning to ODIs. It was also the reason he missed the recently concluded ODI series against Zimbabwe.”
“The conditions in Pakistan are similar to those in Afghanistan and the UAE, where we usually play. We’ll be doing a multi-stage prep camp before we hit the road for the big event. Expectations are high and I hope the team will prepare well and deliver excellent performances, as they did in the last two World Cups,” he said.
This is Afghanistan’s 15-man squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Lineup: Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Rahmat Shah (VC), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Ikram Alikhil (WK), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Naveed Zadran and Farid Ahmad Malik.
Reserve squad: Darwish Rasooli, Nangyal Kharoti and Bilal Sami
