Omarzai, who was pulled out of CPL 2024, is in range for his Test comeback after being named in the club
Rashid Khan, Afghanistan's top spin, is not included in the 20-man primary club for the one-off Check against New Zealand, which will be held in Greater Noida from September 9 to September 13.
In Abu Dhabi, Rashid was last seen playing in a Test match for Afghanistan in March 2021. Rashid's presence from the club, which may travel to India on August 28 for a one-week preparation camp, was not disclosed in a statement from the ACB.
Rashid was late in activity in the Shpageeza T20 group in Kabul as as Speen Ghar Tigers ' captain. Last year, he hit 53 off 26 balloons and picked up a innings in a compressed activity in the group. Prior to that, his tenure with Trent Rockets in the men's Hundred was cut short by a hamstring injuries.
" Twenty people have been selected for the training camp and a 15-member crew will be selected to play the single Test match against New Zealand after observing their efficiency and fitness", Ahmad Shah Sulimankhel, the chief selection said.
Seam-bowling allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai is in line to make his Test debut, meanwhile, after being named in the preliminary squad. Omarzai has established himself as a regular in white-ball cricket for Afghanistan but is uncapped in Test cricket, and his first-class experience is also limited: he has played just five long-format games so far. Omarzai was recently pulled out of his CPL stint with Antigua & Barbuda Falcons, with England's Sam Billings replacing him. CPL 2024 will overlap with the Test match against New Zealand and the ODI series that follows against South Africa in the UAE, also in September.
Afghanistan will have an assistant coach in R Sridhar for their upcoming series against New Zealand and South Africa, while Hashmatullah Shahidi was chosen as their captain. Sridhar had served as India's fielding coach from 2014 to 2021, working as a part of Ravi Shastri's support staff.
The Test against New Zealand will be Afghanistan's 10th overall and their third of 2024- the most they have so far played in a calendar year.
Afghanistan preliminary squad for one-off Test against NZ
Hashmatullah Shahidi ( capt ), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhil (wk ), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk ), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab.
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