Afghanistan announced their 17-member squad for the Asia Cup 2023, starting from Wednesday. Karim Janat an experienced allrounder made a comeback to the side and will be playing in the 2023 edition of the Asia Cup. The 25-year-old has been an integral part of the Afghanistan T20I team after making his debut back in February 2017 against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports.

Since then, Janat has not taken part in a single ODI despite playing for  Afghanistan in one Test and 49 T20Is. Talking about his numbers, Janat has collected 799 runs from 34 innings with five half-centuries and a top score of 68. He has also taken 60 wickets at an economy rate of 5.47 with a five-wicket haul to his name.

Speaking about the Afghan team, Hashmatullah Shahidi will be leading the Afghans. Considering the spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the Afghan team management have added four spinners in the form of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, and Sharafuddin Ashraf.

All the eyes will be on the likes of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who have been in terrific form with the bat. Afghanistan will be coming to play the Asia Cup after losing the bilateral ODI series 3-0 to Babar Azam’s Pakistan. During the second game of the same series, a controversy transpired when 11 runs were needed off the final over, and  Afghanistan seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi ran out Shadab Khan at the non-striker’s end. Pakistan players were disappointed after seeing this dismissal but then it did not make any impact and they won the series.

Afghanistan will start their Asia Cup campaign by playing against Shakib Al Hasan’s Bangladesh on Sunday, September 3 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Afghanistan’s squad for Asia Cup 2023:  Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Ikram Ali Khil, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Noor Ahmad, Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem