Afghanistan call up Rashid Khan for Bangladesh ODI series

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: The star spinner missed Afghanistan’s heavy defeat in the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur earlier this month, with the ACB opting to give him some rest.

But the 24-year-old is back in the mix ahead of the ODI series, which is scheduled to start on July 5 in Chattogram.

“It’s very good news that everybody is in and everybody is back regarding their fitness and regarding their role in the team and we are quite happy for that,” ACB’s chief selector Asadullah Khan told Cricbuzz on Sunday.

Rashid is joined by five uncapped players in the squad, with Zia Akbar, Izharulhaq Naveed, Wafadar Momand, Abdur Rahman and Saleem Safi all included.

But there’s no place for rising star Noor Ahmad, who excelled alongside Rashid in the IPL.

However, the selectors explained that the 18-year-old is not yet high enough up the pecking order in One Day Internationals, but could well be included in the T20I matches to follow.

“Right now he (Noor) is very good in T20,” Asadullah Khan said.

“Naveed Izhar will be in the one-day and he will back Rashid and Mujeeb, while in the T20 we should have somebody who has confidence. The format is totally changed and the mindset is totally changed and I don’t want to mess it up.”

Afghanistan’s tour of Bangladesh began with a one-off Test, which was won by a massive margin of 546 runs by the hosts. The three-match ODI encounter will be followed by a three-match T20I series.