T20 World Cup 2021: Sharafudin Ashraf approved as Afghanistan's replacement for retired Asghar Afghan

Dubai: The event technical committee of the ICC T20 World Cup on Tuesday approved Sharafudin Ashraf as a replacement for Asghar Afghan in the Afghanistan squad ahead of their match against India. All-rounder Sharafudin, who has played 17 ODIs and nine T20Is, was approved as a replacement following Asghar’s retirement. [caption id=“attachment_10100941” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Asghar Afghan is hugged by teammate Mohammad Shahzad after having represented Afghanistan for the last time in the 62-run win over Namibia. AFP[/caption] A bowling all-rounder, Ashraf has claimed five wickets in his T20I career so far with figures of 3/27 on his debut in the format back in 2015 against the Netherlands. He last featured for the Afghanistan T20I side in March, against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi. Less than 24 hours after their heartbreaking loss to Pakistan, former skipper Afghan, who holds the record of most T20I wins as captain, announced his decision to retire post the match against Namibia. Sharafudin was a reserve as per the allowance for teams to travel with extra players in view of COVID-19 quarantine requirements. 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 T20 World Cup consists of Chris Tetley (Head of Events, Chair), Clive Hitchcock (ICC Senior Cricket Operations Manager), Rahul Dravid and Dhiraj Malhotra (BCCI Representatives), Simon Doull and Ian Bishop (Independent Members).