ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Afghanistan squad

Ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Afghanistan cricket team announced a 15-member squad which will be lead by Mohammad Nabi. The 11^th edition of cricket’s biggest tournament will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in February and March.

For the first time, Afghanistan is going to take part in a 50-over cricket world cup. Earlier they took part in World Twenty20 tournaments and gained some experience of playing against the big teams. This experience will help them to perform well in the World Cup.

It looks like that Afghanistan will have to depend on senior players like Samiullah Shenwari, Nawroz Mangal, Asghar Stanikzai, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Mirwais Ashraf and Hamid Hassan. All of them were part of the last Twenty20 World Cup. Besides the senior and experienced players, selectors have called up a couple of new players in the team. They are 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Afsar Zazai and the 18-year-old batsman Usman Ghani.

In this squad, selectors have kept Shafiqullah, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Izatullah Dawlatzai and Hashmatullah Shaidi as standby players.

Their pace attack consists of Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan and Aftab Alam while Samiullah Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi will play their role as leg spinner and off spinner respectively.

Afghanistan’s Squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Mohammad Nabi (capt), Nawroz Mangal, Asghar Stanikzai, Samiullah Shenwari, Afsar Zazai (wk), Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Mirwais Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani.

Standby: Shafiqullah (wk),Sharafuddin Ashraf,Izatullah Dawlatzai, Hashmatullah Shaidi.