Afghanistan has announced a huge 26-man squad for the nation's inaugural tour to Zimbabwe in July-August
Afghanistan Cricker Board (ACB) chief executive, Dr. Noor Mohammad Murad said the upcoming series against Zimbabwe is a major event for the Afghan team and added that the series has been organised with an aim to prepare the team for the ICC World Cup 2015.
Afghanistan will play two warm-up games on July 13 and July 15 and they will play four ODIs against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. The dates for the ODIs are July 18, July 20, July 22 and July 24. They will round off the trip with two four-day games at Harare.
Zimbabwe had been scheduled to host Afghanistan for several T20Is and an ODI in January 2014 but the tour had to be cancelled due to Zimbabwe Cricket's financial crisis. This will be the first time that Afghanistan will be playing a bilateral series against a Test playing nation. They had earlier played an ODI against Pakistan and Australia in the UAE and had recently participated in the Asia Cup held in Bangladesh.
Afghanistan squad: Noor Ali Zadran, Osman Ghani, Javed Ahmadi, Asghar Stanekzai, Rahmat Shah, Samiullah Shenwari, Mohammad Nabi Esakhil, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Merewais Ashraf, Ghulbadin Naib, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamza Hotak, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Mujtaba, Karim Sadiq, Najeeb Tarakay, Shabir Noori, Mohibullah Oryakhil, Nasir Jamal, Qasim, Fazal Niazi, Yameen Ahmadzai and Abdullah Adil.