Rashid Khan will miss all three of Afghanistan’s Tests, and Mohammad Nabi is out of the T20I side
Afghanistan named their squads for Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the UAE on 1 October. Rashid and Ibrahim Zadran stay out of Tests on medical advice, and Nabi keeps only his ODI place.
Oct 2, 2026
Afghanistan have three Tests to play in the next seven weeks, and Rashid Khan will not play in any of them. The Afghanistan Cricket Board named its squads for a run of games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the UAE on Thursday, 1 October, and both Rashid and opener Ibrahim Zadran were left out of the Test side again on medical advice.
The board’s line was short. Both players, it said, “have been advised not to play Tests”. Rashid had back surgery in 2023 and has not played a Test since January 2025. He is in the ODI and T20I squads, and Ibrahim will captain the T20I side against Zimbabwe.
The other headline is in that T20I squad. Mohammad Nabi is not in it. The 41-year-old keeps his ODI place for the tri-series, but he has been left out of the shortest format a fortnight after Afghanistan lost all three T20Is to India in Delhi.
A busy UAE stint
It starts with a one-off Test against Bangladesh at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi from 9 to 13 October. Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe then play a three-team ODI series from 17 October, with the final in Sharjah on 23 October.
After that come three T20Is against Zimbabwe in Sharjah on 27 October, 29 October and 1 November, and two Tests against the same side at the same ground, from 5 to 9 November and 13 to 17 November.
Rahmat Shah leads the Test and ODI sides. He took over both jobs in July after Hashmatullah Shahidi stepped down, and Abu Dhabi will be his first Test since. Shahidi is in both squads as a player.
Who comes in
The selectors have leaned on domestic numbers for the Test squad. Shahidullah Kamal is back after making 538 runs at 76.85 in first-class cricket, and fast bowler Yamin Ahmadzai has been recalled after taking 42 wickets at 12.73. Ismat Alam, who missed the Test against India in June, returns, as does left-arm spinner Zia-ur-Rehman after a long injury layoff.
Without Rashid, the wrist-spin in the Test side falls to Qais Ahmad and Khalil Gurbaz, a leg-spinner whose last Test squad was for the Ireland game in 2024. That is not a bad group for UAE pitches. It is not Rashid either, and Bangladesh have spinners of their own.
The T20I squad has a younger look. Fast-bowling all-rounder Abdullah Tarakhil gets his first call-up after the Shpageeza League, Mohammad Akram is included after making his T20I debut at the Asian Games in Japan, and Ijaz Ahmadzai and Shahidullah return. Darwish Rasooli misses out on both white-ball squads.
What the board is saying
The Bangladesh game is the first time Afghanistan have hosted them in a Test, and ACB chief executive Naseeb Khan pointed to the longer format when the squads came out. “Test cricket is of immense importance to us, and we remain committed to strengthening Afghanistan’s presence and performance in this format,” he said.
Three Tests in under six weeks is a real chance to back that up, and two of them are against a Zimbabwe side Afghanistan know well. I think the Bangladesh game in Abu Dhabi is the one that will tell us most about where this Test team is without its best bowler.