Afghanistan name four uncapped players in the squad for Sri Lanka Test; Rashid Khan unavailable

Kabul, Jan 29 (IANS) Afghanistan have named their squad for the one-off Test match against Sri Lanka, beginning February 2, participating in the tour without senior spinner Rashid Khan and with four uncapped players.

Rashid will miss the one-off Test match against Sri Lanka as he continues to recover from a back surgery. Qais Ahmed, whose only Test came five years ago, has been named in the squad in place of Rashid.

There are also four uncapped players in the squad, namely Noor Ali Zadran, Zia-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Ishaq and Naveed Zadran.

Noor Ali, related to Mujeeb ur Rahman and Ibrahim Zadran, is the most experienced of the four with 74 international caps to his name in ODIs and T20Is. The 35-year-old is yet to make his Test debut. He, however, made his ODI debut as early as 2009, in Afghanistan's first-ever ODI.

Afghanistan's last Test came in June 2023, when they lost to Bangladesh by a huge margin. This will be their eighth Test match.

Afghanistan's tour of Sri Lanka also includes three ODIs and as many T20Is, which follow the one-off Test.

Afghanistan Test squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Abdul Malik, Noor Ali Zadran, Rahmat Shah (vc), Bahir Shah, Nasir Jamal, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Mohammad Ishaq (wk), Qais Ahmad, Zia-ur-Rehman, Zahir Khan, Yamin Ahmadzai, Nijat Masood, Mohammad Saleem and Naveed Zadran.