March 7 (CRICKETNMORE) - The ICC has confirmed that the Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 has approved Afsar Zazai as a replacement player for Asghar Stanikzai in the Afghanistan squad for the tournament, which began on 4 March.
Afghanistan captain Asghar underwent an appendicitis operation on the eve of his side’s first warm-up match against the Windies and has now been ruled out of further participation in the tournament.
Afsar is a 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who has played 17 ODIs, aggregating 264 runs with 60 as his top score. He made his ODI debut against the UAE in November 2014, while his last ODI appearance was against the Windies in Gros Islet in June 2017.
The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.
The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 is Geoff Allardice (ICC General Manager – Cricket, Chairman), Chris Tetley (ICC Head of Events), Faisal Hasnain, Chris Chiketa (both host nominees), Mpumelelo Mbangwa and Lisa Sthalekar (both independent nominees).
Afghanistan have lost both their matches to Scotland and Zimbabwe to date, and play Hong Kong and Nepal on 8 and 10 March.
ICC Media Release