Afghanistan has announced a full-strength squad ahead for the upcoming Asia Cup. Hashmatullah Shahidi will lead the team as usual. There are a total of 17 cricketers in the squad.

The Asia Cup is going to start on August 30. Afghanistan announced the squad just three days before the start of the tournament. Afghans are now staying in Sri Lanka. They completed the three-match ODI series against Pakistan on Saturday.

Afghanistan has lost all three matches of the three-match ODI series against Pakistan. However, the team is getting an additional opportunity to adapt to the conditions as they have gone to Sri Lanka earlier.

There are 17 cricketers in the announced Afghan team for the Asia Cup. There were 19 cricketers in the series against Pakistan. Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahidullah Kamal, and Wafadar Momand have been dropped from that team. Sharafuddin Ashraf has joined the team.

Ashraf's return to the Asia Cup squad is surprising. Because he last played ODI in January 2022. He has played 19 ODI matches in the Afghanistan jersey. But the performance did not speak for this all-rounder. He took 13 wickets with the ball in hand and scored 66 runs at just 9.42 with the bat. However, recently he has performed well in domestic cricket and made it to the important team of the Asia Cup.

Afghanistan squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Abdul Rahman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem, Fazalhaq Farooqi.