Rashid Khan makes his much-awaited return to competitive cricket ahead of the IPL 2024 as the star spinner will be leading Afghanistan in the T20I squad for the Ireland series. The leggie last played a competitive cricket match in the ODI World Cup 2023. He sustained a back injury during the tournament and missed out on cricketing action ever since then.
Rashid's return will also be a significant boost for the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. The Afghan star would now be able to play for the 2022 champions. Rashid missed out on the Big Bash League 13 and the PSL 9 and was not part of the International assignments for his national side. He travelled with the team for a T20I series against India in January but was not deemed fit to play.
In Rashid's absence, opening batter Ibrahim Zadran led the team in the three T20I series after the ODI World Cup. Afghanistan faced UAE, India and Sri Lanka in those three series and managed to beat only UAE by 2-1, while lost to India 3-0 and Sri Lanka 2-1.
The three-match T20I series against Ireland is their last 20-over International assignment before the T20 World Cup in June.
Rashid had recently opened up on his return to International cricket. "The plan is to represent the country in the upcoming series (T20 against Afghanistan) and the training has been underway and today was the second day and thankfully it went well and I hope that the following few days will also be well so that I can wear the national jersey again and continue to do well for my country," Rashid said while speaking to Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB).
Meanwhile, Mujeeb Ur Rahman also returns to the International side after missing out the the T20I series against Sri Lanka and the ODI series against Ireland. He had a sprain in his right phalanx (hand) and is now making a comeback. The three-match T20I series begins on March 15 at Afghanistan's home.
Afghanistan T20I squad: Rashid Khan (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sediq Atal, Ijaz Ahmadzai, Ishaq Rahimi (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Nangyal Kharotai, Azmat Omarzai, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Wafadar Momand, Farid Malik, Naveen Ul Haq, Fazal Haq Farooqi
