Information on Afghanistan’s participation in the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup, with details about the Afghanistan Team, playing schedule, and World Cup history.
Afghanistan World Cup Team
Afghanistan are definitely one of the outside bets for this Cricket World Cup, having only won one match in the main tournament previously . That being said, they will likely gain a huge amount of support from fans in the stadiums, who will want to see this turbulent nation progress in the competition. They have never got through the group stages before, so match victories will likely be their focus.
Afghanistan World Cup Team information
ODI Ranking: 9
Rating: 80
Highest previous CWC finish: Group Stage
Captain: Hashmatullah Shahidi (Batter)
Squad: Rahmat Shah (Batter), Najib Zadran (Batter), Rashid Khan (Bowler), Azmat Omarzai (All-rounder), Reyaz Hassan, Fazalhaq Farooqi (Bowler), Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Nabi (All-rounder), Naveen-ul-Haq Murid (Bowler), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Bowler), Ikram Alikhil (Wicket-keeper & Batter), Ibrahim Zadran (Batter), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Wicket-keeper & Batter), Abdul Rahman
Afghanistan World Cup schedule 2023
The Afghanistan Cricket World Cup campaign gets off to a blistering start with a match against another slightly unfavoured side in Bangladesh on the 7th October. They then have the daunting task of facing India on the 11th and then England on the 15th, which will really test this qualifying side.
Bangladesh v Afghanistan
10:30, Sat 07 October
HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala
India v Afghanistan
14:00, Wed 11 October
Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
England v Afghanistan
14:00, Sun 15 October
Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
New Zealand v Afghanistan
14:00 Wed 18 October
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Pakistan v Afghanistan
14:00 Mon 23 October
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Afghanistan v Sri Lanka
MCA International Stadium, Pune
14:00 Mon 30 October
Netherlands v Afghanistan
14:00 Fri 03 November
BRSABVE Cricket Stadium, Lucknow
Australia v Afghanistan
14:00 Tue 07 November
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
South Africa v Afghanistan
14:00 Fri 10 November
Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
The Afghanistan management will have circled a few of these matches where they will fancy getting a win, but it will be a huge shock if they were to progress further than the groups.
The ODI History of Afghanistan
Afghanistan made their Cricket World Cup debut in 2015 when they lined up in a tournament hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Captained by Mohammad Nabi, the team actually managed to win one match while losing their remaining five games during the group phase.
The solo victory came against Scotland on 26 February when the Afghans managed to secure a one-wicket win against their European opponents, with the team losing to New Zealand, Australian, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England.
Gulbadin Naib was the captain of the Afghanistan cricket team four years later, with the team getting another baptism of fire. On that occasion, the side were unable to register a victory in their nine matches played and will hope for better fortunes in better tournaments.
Who Holds the ODI Records for Afghanistan?
The highest team total ever recorded by the Afghanistan cricket team was 338 runs that was recorded against Ireland. This was managed on 17 March 2017 at Greater Noida, with Mohammad Nabi having top scored for his country. The former captain has managed 2,869 runs and averaged 27.58 runs in the process.
Rahmat Shah is next on the list with 2,753 runs and he’s followed in the order by Mohammad Shahzad, while Asghar Afghan is the other player who has notched over 2,000 runs. On the wicket-taking front, Rashid Khan has notched over 150 and leads the way for his country.
Mohammad Nabi has racked up 134 wickets, with Dawlat Zadran also reaching a century of wickets in the process. It is Khan who has achieved the best match performances, with 7/18 posted against the West Indies in 2017 and 6/43 came against Ireland in the same year.
