T20 World Cup 2024: Afghanistan Lose Star Spinner For Reminder of Tournament, Name Batter as Replacement

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Afghanistan has named opening batter Hazratullah Zazai as replacement for spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman, who has been ruled out of the remainder of T20 World Cup 2024 due to recurrence of a finger injury

Mujeeb, who missed IPL 2024 due to the same issue, returned to action and featured in the opening clash of the show-piece tournament against Uganda, but missed action again due to a sprain in index finger of his bowling hand, as per ESPNCricinfo.

The star spinner has been replaced by Zazai, as confirmed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday (June 14) following approval from their event technical committee just after Afghanistan's win over Papua New Guinea.

Zazai, who was already part of the travelling reserves, is not a like-for-like replacement, but adds more strength to the batting options. He has not played a T20I since February this year but featured in 2021 and 2022 editions of T20 WC.

Afghanistan may have picked Zazai as they had a replacement for Mujeeb in their main team itself in the form of Noor Ahmed, who played against New Zealand and PNG.

"He is going to be a big part for us going forward, as these wickets continue to wear," Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan's coach, said about Noor, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"It is always nice to have the option of him to come into the side, or the left-arm spin of Nangeyalia Kharote, who can come into the side - he did really well in the last [series] against Ireland - and obviously [Mohammad] Nabi, who can bowl spin as well," he added.

Afghanistan secured their spot in the Super Eight stage by beating PNG will face West Indies in their final group game on Monday (June 17) in Saint Lucia. In Super 8, they will be in the same group as India, Australia and either of Bangladesh or Netherlands.