The Afghanistan national cricket team (Pashto: د افغانستان د کريکټ ملي لوبډله‎) (Persian :تیم ملی کریکت افغانستان) represents is the 12th Test cricket playing Full Member nation. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid 19th century, but it is only in recent years that the national team has become successful. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995 and became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001[8] and a member of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2003.

They are ranked 8th in International Twenty20 cricket as of 7 June 2018 ahead of four other full members Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland.[10] After nearly a decade of playing top class international cricket, on 22 June 2017, in an ICC meeting in London, full ICC membership (Test status) was granted to Afghanistan (concurrently with Ireland), taking the number of Test cricket playing nations to twelve.


Towards Test status

Afghanistan qualified for 2012 ICC World Twenty20 held in Sri Lanka as the runner up of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and joined India and England in the group stage. In the first match against India on 19 September, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field. India posted 159/5 in 20 overs but Afghanistan fell short of that target by scoring 136 in 19.3 overs. In the second match against England on 21 September, Afghanistan won the toss and again elected to field. England set a target of 196/5 (20 overs) but Afghanistan were all out for 80 in 17.2 overs. England and India qualified for the Super Eights and Afghanistan were eliminated as a result of this match.

On 3 October 2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to finish second in the WCL Championship and qualify for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, becoming the 20th team to gain entry into the tournament overall. Afghanistan secured their passage to Australia and New Zealand in 2015 by beating Kenya comprehensively for the second time in succession in Sharjah, sealing their maiden World Cup qualification. They finished second in the World Cricket League Championship — nine wins in 14 matches — and joined Ireland as the second Associate team in the 2015 World Cup, while the remaining two spots for Associates will be decided by a qualifying tournament in New Zealand in 2014. Afghanistan will join Pool A at the World Cup along with Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and another qualifier.[13] On November 24, 2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to qualify for the 2014 T20 world cup.

In March 2014, Afghanistan beat Hong Kong in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 but could not make it to the next stage of super 10 having lost the two matches to Bangladesh and Nepal.

On 25 February 2015, Afghanistan won their first Cricket World Cup match beating Scotland by one wicket. Afghanistan participated in the World Twenty20 2016 in India. They were unable to qualify for the Semi-Finals of the International Tournament. They defeated the eventual champions, West Indies, during their final group match of the tournament.

Their third match was against the full member test team Zimbabwe. They played exceptionally well beating Zimbabwe by 59 runs. Afghanistan qualified for the Super 10 stage of the tournament as a result of this match, while Zimbabwe were eliminated. Afghanistan progressed to the second phase of a World Twenty20 tournament for the first time. On 25 June 2016, Lalchand Rajput was named as head coach of Afghanistan Cricket Team replacing Pakistan's Inzamam ul Haq and his first tour with team will be tour of Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands in July and August. He was chosen ahead of Mohammad Yousuf, Herschelle Gibbs and Corey Collymore[14] Rajput is in line for a two-year contract, but that decision would be finalised after the upcoming tour of Europe.

In July 2016, ACB unveiled a strategic plan and set targets for Afghanistan cricket team to be a top-six ODI team by 2019 and a top-three team in both T20Is and ODIs by 2025.[15] In order to achieve this, ACB created a proposal to be presented to BCCI, to secure annual bilateral matches against India and teams touring India beginning the following year.[16] Shafiq Stanikzai, Chief Executive of ACB, said the draft had been presented to BCCI president Anurag Thakur in May and further discussions occurred during the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh in June 2016.

On 25 July 2016, Afghanistan confirmed its first full series against West Indies a top-8 ranked Full member.[17] Its earlier full series came against a permanent member of ICC was against Zimbabwe. Afghanistan toured the Caribbean islands in mid-June 2017 and played 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is.

On the same day, it was announced that Afghanistan would host a full series against Ireland at Greater Noida.[18] Besides a 4-day intercontinental cup match, Ireland and Afghanistan would play five ODIs and three T20Is in March 2017. Afghanistan won the T20I series 3-0 and in the process set a new T20I record of 11 consecutive victories.

Current squad

Name

Age

Batting style

Bowling style

Note

Captain

Asghar Stanikzai 31 Right-handed Right-arm medium

Vice - Captain

Rashid Khan 19 Right-handed Right-arm leg-break googly

Batsmen

Hashmatullah Shaidi 23 Left-handed Right-arm off-break

Hazratullah 20 Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox

Ihsanullah 20 Right-handed –

Javed Ahmadi 26 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Najeeb Tarakai 27 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Najibullah Zadran 25 Left-handed Right-arm off-break

Noor Ali 30 Right-handed Right-arm medium

Shabir Noori 26 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Usman Ghani 21 Right-handed –

All-rounders

Gulbadin Naib 27 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast

Karim Janat 19 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast

Karim Sadiq 34 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Mohammad Nabi 33 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Nasir Jamal 24 Right-handed Right-arm leg-break

Nawroz Mangal 33 Right-handed Right-arm off-break

Rahmat Shah 25 Right-handed Right-arm leg-break

Samiullah Shenwari 30 Right-handed Right-arm leg-break

Wicket-keepers

Afsar Zazai 25 Right-handed –

Mohammad Shahzad 30 Right-handed –

Shafiqullah 29 Right-handed –

Pace bowlers

Aftab Alam 25 Right-handed Right-arm medium

Dawlat Zadran 30 Right-handed Right-arm fast

Fareed Ahmad 23 Left-handed Left-arm medium-fast

Hameed Hassan 31 Right-handed Right-arm fast

Karim Janat 19 Right-handed Right-arm medium

Mirwais Ashraf 30 Right-handed Right-arm medium

Naveen-ul-Haq 18 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast

Shapoor Zadran 33 Left-handed Left-arm fast

Yamin Ahmadzai 26 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast

Spin bowlers

Amir Hamza 26 Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox

Zahir Khan 19 Left-handed Slow left-arm chinamen

Mujeeb Zadran 17 Right-handed Right-arm off-break