Afghanistan's hard-hitting opener Hazratullah Zazai was on Monday (October 31) ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 due to an abdominal muscle strain.
Due to Zazai's untimely injury, the Afghanistan team has made a change to their T20 World Cup 2022 squad, with experienced batter Gulbadin Naib replacing the injured opener for the remainder of the tournament. The T20 World Cup official website announced the development on Monday.
Naib was with the Afghanistan team as a travelling reserve in Australia, and he is highly likely to play in the team’s fourth Super 12 match against Sri Lanka in Brisbane on Tuesday (November 1).
Meanwhile, the organisers of the showpiece event revealed that Zazai has been battling an abdominal and kidney concern, which ruled him out for the remainder of the T20 World Cup 2022.
Notably, the 24-year-old opener holds the record for the second-highest score in the history of men’s T20I cricket with his brilliant knock of 162* against Ireland in Dehradun in 2019.
On the other hand, Afghanistan will have to beat Sri Lanka in Brisbane on Tuesday and Australia in Adelaide on Friday in their final Super 12 matches to have any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Here’s Afghanistan’s update T20 World Cup 2022 squad:
Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Azmatullah Omarzai, Darwish Rasooli, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Ibrahim Zadran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Naveen ul Haq, Qais Ahmad, Rashid Khan, Salim Safi, Gulbadin Naib, Usman Ghani. Standby Players: Afsar Zazai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Rahmat Shah.
