Afghanistan leave out Shahzad, Naib, Shahidi from T20I squad for Bangladesh tour

Afghanistan made a number of changes to their white-ball squads for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh. Gone from the T20 World Cup squad from last year are senior pros Mohammad Shahzad, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hassan and Hashmatullah Shahidi, while the ODI squad was also tweaked.

The tour starts with a three-ODI series, for which Afghanistan have left out Sharafuddin Ashraf and Usman Ghani, who were part of the squad for the series against Netherlands in Doha in January. Ibrahim Zadran, the top-order batter, has been brought in. Qais Ahmad and Mohammad Saleem have also been removed from the main squad and placed in the two-man list of travelling reserves.

It's the squad for the two-match T20I series that wears a very different look. Apart from Shahzad, Naib, Hassan and Shahidi, there was also no Naveen-ul-Haq, who recently took a break from ODIs to focus on preparing for the T20 World Cup late this year, saying he was "fully available for national duty for all T20 games". Asghar Afghan, who was part of the 2021 World Cup squad, has since retired.

Drafted in are Qais, medium-pace-bowling allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai, the left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi, big-hitting batter Darwish Rasooli, wicketkeeper-batter Afsar Zazai, and right-arm medium pacer Nijat Masood.

The three ODIs will be played on February 23, 25 and 28, all in Dhaka, and the T20Is are set for March 3 and 5 in Chattogram.

ODI squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Rahmat Shah (vice-capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Najibullah Zadran, Shahid Kamal, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Azmat Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Yamin Ahmadzai, Farid Ahmad Malik
Travelling reserves: Qais Ahmad, Salim Safi

T20I squad: Mohammad Nabi (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Usman Ghani, Darwish Rasooli, Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Zazai, Karim Janat, Azmat Omarzai, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Qais Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Nijat Masood, Farid Ahmad Malik