Naveen-ul-Haq is back for the first time since 2024, and his return series is in Delhi against India
Afghanistan have named a 15-man squad for three T20Is against India in Delhi next month. Naveen-ul-Haq returns from shoulder surgery after almost two years out, and Ibrahim Zadran begins his tenure as captain.
Aug 25, 2026
Naveen-ul-Haq has not bowled for Afghanistan since December 2024. He returns next month, and of all the places the fixture list could have sent him, it has sent him to Delhi to play India.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board named a 15-man squad on Monday for three T20Is at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on 13, 15 and 17 September. It is a home series played on Indian soil, and it is the first T20I assignment Afghanistan have had since the T20 World Cup finished in March.
Two years and a shoulder operation
Naveen’s absence was not a selection decision. A stress fracture in his right shoulder ruled him out of the T20I series against West Indies and then the World Cup, cost him over seven months on the sidelines, and required surgery in the UK. Zia-ur-Rahman Sharifi took his World Cup place. The gap since his last international runs to almost two years.
He comes back into a bowling group that does not lack for options. Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Rashid Khan and Nangeyalia Kharote are all in the squad, along with Azmatullah Omarzai and Gulbadin Naib. Naveen’s case rests on what he was before the injury, a death bowler trusted with the last overs, rather than on anything he has done since.
Indian fans remember him for something else
There is no polite way around why this particular return will be loud. On 1 May 2023, in Lucknow, Naveen and Virat Kohli spent an evening at each other in an LSG game against Royal Challengers Bangalore that RCB won by 18 runs. The handshake line afterwards was worse than the cricket. Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were each docked their entire match fee, Naveen half of his.
More than three years have passed and the clip still circulates every time his name comes up. If he plays at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in September, a section of the crowd will have that evening in mind, and Naveen has never given the impression that this sort of thing bothers him much.
Zadran’s first series in charge
The other headline in the squad sheet is Ibrahim Zadran, who officially begins his tenure as T20I captain in Delhi. He was Rashid Khan’s vice-captain and took the job after Afghanistan went out of the World Cup without reaching the Super Eights. Rashid stays in the squad as a player, which is the part worth watching. A former captain of that stature standing next to the new one is either the most useful thing in the dressing room or the most awkward, and there is rarely much middle ground.
Mohammad Nabi is back in the white-ball side after sitting out the 4-0 ODI win over Ireland on CPL duty. Gulbadin Naib keeps his place despite missing both the June Tests and ODIs against India and the Ireland series. Kharote comes into the main squad after being left out of the World Cup, and the uncapped Noor ul Rahman is in as the second wicketkeeper behind Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Shahidullah Kamal drops to the reserves alongside Ijaz Ahmadzai and Fareed Ahmad Malik, and Mohammad Ishaq is out of the picture entirely.
What Afghanistan actually need from September
Read the squad as a rebuild that has not been announced as one. A new captain, a fast bowler returning from surgery, an uncapped keeper, and a recalled 41-year-old allrounder is not the shape of a side chasing a result next month. It is the shape of a side working out who it has.
India will treat three T20Is in Delhi as preparation of their own. For Afghanistan the bar is different and lower and more useful: find out whether Naveen’s shoulder holds up under a full spell, whether Zadran’s captaincy survives contact with a crowd that will not be on his side, and whether the players who were not at the World Cup have a case for the next one. Three matches in five days will answer more of that than a year of scheduling has so far.