Afghanistan Pacer Fareed Ahmad Dropped From Asia Cup Squad For Abusing Babar Azam – Report
Afghanistan announced their 17-member squad for the Asia Cup on Sunday. The team dropped Fareed Ahmad, Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahidullah Kamal and Wafadar Momand from the squad. Meanwhile, the likes of Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran and Sharafuddin Ashraf were added to the team.
Karim Janat has just played one ODI for Afghanistan in 2017 but has been a regular member of the Afghanistan T20I team. The pacer has taken 37 T20I wickets at an average of 26.81. Najibullah Zadran was ruled out of the ODI series against Pakistan due to an injury and his return will be a big boost for Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, as per reports, Fareed Ahmad has been dropped from the team because he abused Babar Azam and Imam ul Haq. The news is doing rounds on social media but there has been no official confirmation about the same.
Breaking: Fareed Ahmad dropped from Afghanistan's Asia Cup squad, he had abused Babar Azam and Imam Ul Haq. Karim Janat has replaced him, Karim was hit by Asif Ali for four sixes.
No Naveen Ul Haq in the squad either. No Virat Kohli vs Naveen Ul Haq then #AsiaCup2023
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) August 27, 2023
Afghanistan head into the Asia Cup after losing 3-0 to Pakistan in the ODI series. The scoreline does not suggest how close the series was. Afghanistan had their moments in all three ODIs but failed to capitalise on crunch situations and ended up losing the games.
Afghanistan have been kept in Group B alongside Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and will open their Asia Cup campaign against Bangladesh on September 3.
Squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Rashid Khan, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Abdul Rahman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Suliman Safi, Fazalhaq Farooqi