Afghanistan Cricket Team

The Afghanistan national cricket team or Afghanistan is the 12th test team enjoying Full member status of ICC. The International Cricket Council or ICC is a sports body which organizes cricket around the globe and hosts major events of cricket. Recently, ICC has given the Test team status to Afghanistan Cricket Team in 2017. In a short time period, Afghanistan has done wonders in cricket. They started their journey by forming the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in 1995 and became an affiliate member of ICC in 2001. Then they got the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) membership in 2003 as they are Asian soil team. It’s a landmark achieved by the side in such a short time span of 25 years. Afghanistan recently made record 278 runs in T20 match against Ireland.

Afghanistan 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup Results

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup will be the second 50-overs international World Cup appearance of Afghanistan after 2015 World Cup.

Versus Win/Lost Bangladesh 267 (50 overs) Afghanistan 162 (42.5 overs) Bangladesh won by 105 runs Sri Lanka 236/6 (48.2 overs) Afghanistan 232 (49.4 overs) Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets Scotland 210 (50 overs) Afghanistan 211/9 (49.3 overs) Afghanistan won by 1 wicket Australia 417/6 (50 overs) Afghanistan 142 (37.3 overs) Australia won by 275 runs New Zealand 188/4 (36.1 ) Afghanistan 186 (47.4 overs) New Zealand won by 6 wickets England 101/1 (18.1 overs) Afghanistan 111/7 (36.2 overs) England won by 9 wickets (D/L method)

ODI Status:

Since Afghanistan is participating in the ICC events after its associate member status, they played the qualifiers for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in India. But they couldn’t qualify for the World Cup 2011 in India. Nevertheless, they earned Four years of contractual ODI status after the good consistent performances in World Cup 2011 qualifiers. They kept on performing well since then and won many battles against the sides of the same caliber. ICC offers the intercontinental cup and other qualifiers through which they award the association or full membership to the well-performing teams. Afghanistan consistency leads them to earn the ODI status after many efforts and winning against good quality sides. They played their first ODI against Scotland in 2009 (which is not a test playing nation).

Their First ODI match against Full member was against Pakistan Cricket Team in 2012 February. Pakistan is the key player to help Afghanistan Cricket because most players started to get inspired and play cricket because of Pakistan Cricket Team when Afghanistan was in the War position and refugees migrated from Afghanistan to its neighbor country Pakistan. The same year in August 2012 Afghanistan played against Australia on the same place of Sharjah.

History of Afghanistan Cricket Team

The Cricket in Afghanistan was playing since the mid of the 19th Century but it gets hyped and new life in the Asia Cup of 2018. Before that Afghanistan team was in the lower tiers of the game and couldn’t qualify for much of the big events. After the national team made under the Afghanistan Cricket Board, their cricket starts flourishing and made a good amount of fans worldwide. Their most of the players played in Pakistan which hosted Afghan refugees for since the Afghan Terror War. The NCA (National Cricket Academy) in Lahore has developed many of the youngsters of the Afghan Cricket team.

Afghanistan Squad 2019 Cricket World Cup

Gulbadin Naib(c): This player's role in the team is as a bowler but he is a complete all-rounder because he has a good number of the score under his belt. In 52 matches he scores 807 runs with an average of 22 and took 40 wickets with the best bowling of 4/27.

Mohammad Shahzad (wk): The Wicketkeeper aggressive batsman of Afghanistan team, who entertains every cricketing fan in the world through his batting. He doesn’t have an athletic body but still plays with great aggression on the field and runs as quick as others. In 79 matches and innings, he was not out 3 times and scored 2562 runs with 131* highest, averaging 33.71. his strike rate is 88.40, scored 5 centuries and 13 half-centuries.

Asghar Afghan: Asghar Stanikzai is the core member of the team. He is known for his stable batting form and playing according to the conditions. His ODI records consist of 99 matches in which he plays 93 innings and scored 2013 runs with an average of 23.68. In his last 12 innings, he scored 405 runs with an average of 40.50 with captaincy duties included.

Rahmat Shah: The All-rounder of the team Rahmat Shah has played 54 innings in 58 ODI matches in which he scores 1822 Runs with an average of 35. He also scored 3 centuries and 13 half-centuries.

Hashmat Shahidi: The Top-order batsman has recently made a good name after scoring good runs in the critical situation of the match. Overall he played 28 ODI matches and scored 747 runs with an average of over 32.

Mohammad Nabi: Afghanistan team former skipper of 2015 World Cup who played almost as many ODIs as the team has played so far. He is the seasonal-campaigner who played almost every T20 leagues of the world and has great experience of the game. He will be the key player of the team, scored 2565 in 99 innings and took 118 wickets as well.

Rashid Khan: The star in making from Afghanistan to the world cricket, Rashid Khan has some serious spin talent. He plays as a Bowling all-rounder in the team but has great batting skills with the bat as well. Rashid has batting strike-rate over 100 in ODIs, scoring 782 runs in 42 innings of 57 matches with an average of 24. He has taken 123 wickets through his spin-wizard leg break googlies.

Najibullah Zadran: The Middle-order batsman of the team has played 50 ODI innings in 54 matches, in which he scores 1210 runs. With an average of 28.80, he scored 8 half-centuries and 1 maiden hundred.

Mujeeb-ur-Rahman: Like Rashid Khan, Mujeeb is also spin-bowler of the team who is now making a great mark in the cricketing world. He has played major T20 leagues in the world and knows the conditions well, he is a key player as well. While in short career of 28 ODI matches he took 51 wickets with twice 4 wicket hauls and one 5-wicket haul.

Noor Ali Zadran: Right-hand Opening batsman from Khost has played 47 ODI matches for Afghanistan team and scores 1148 with an average of 26.

Aftab Alam: He is a good pace bowler of Afghanistan team who has taken 31 wickets in his 21 ODI matches.

Samiullah Shinwari: This player of Afghan team plays as an All-rounder in the side, he scored 1737 runs in 71 innings of 81 Odis matches. His wicket column has 45 wickets in 64 bowling innings.

Dawlat Zadran: The Right-arm fast-medium bowler who plays as a bowling all-rounder of the Afghan team has played 74 ODI matches and took 103 wickets, also scored 502 runs in 50 innings.

Hamid Hassan: The Right-arm fast bowler has played 32 ODIs so far and took 56 wickets in it.

Ikram Ali Khil is a Left-hand Top-order batsman who is standby player of Afghanistan in 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. He only played 2 ODIs in his career.

Karim Janat: The Right-arm medium Bowling allrounder is the standby player for Afghan team.

Sayed Shirzad: The Left-arm medium fast Bowler is a standby player for his team in the World Cup.