World T20 Squad Announced! Surprising omissions and pleasant surprises for Afghanistan fans!
- Asghar Afghan
- Rashid Khan (vc)
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz
- Muhammad Shahzad
- Rahmat Shah
- Hashmatullah Shahidi
- Hazratullah Zazai
- Usman Ghani
- Mohammad Nabi
- Samiullah Shenwari
- Najibullah Zadran
- Karim Janat
- Fareed Ahmad
- Shapoor Zadran
- Naveen-ul-Haq
- Mujeeb Ur Rahman
- Qais Ahmad
- Aftab Alam
Asad Raza, the new Afghanistan Men's senior team chief selector, has taken some bold calls. Gulbadin Naib hasn't been considered good enough to play for Afghanistan in the World T20, neither Shafeequllah Shafaq and many other notable omissions will easily be found in this squad of 18. Many T20 specialists, such as Qais Ahmed and Naveen-ul-Haq have been picked as the Blue Tigers look towards surprising a few in the ICC's marque event.
The services of Mohammad Shahzad, Aftab Alam, Fareed Ahmad and co. have been sought by Raza as he looks to form a formidable squad for the World Cup. One area he was visibly concerned over was the lack of specialist batsmen. Upon deeply searching and consulting domestic coaches, he came to the conclusion of sticking with the best available option, and back his all-rounders to help form an excellent combination.
The squad overall looks slightly tilted towards bowlers and all-rounders. Although for the first time in history, Afghanistan seems to have a pretty decent pace-bowling quartet too, backed by the world-class spin attack. All-in-all, Afghanistan has played exciting Cricket over the years and the World Cup will be a serious test for them, and it promises to be an exhilarating one for them as well as their fans.