Three IPL playing Afghan players: Rashid Khan, Mohammed Nabi and Mujeeb ur Rahman are about to travel directly from Caribbean land to ‘the city of gold’ to attend the IPL 2020 edition in UAE.
Three out of six Afghanistan players who are all currently participating in CPL that is organised by Windies cricket board in West Indies are also an integral part of their IPL franchises. Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi of Sunrisers Hyderabad along with Mujeeb ur Rahman of Kings XI Punjab are going to join their IPL camp right after the end of CPL, that is on coming Thursday.
With Rashid Khan’s team already been opted out of the tournament, the other two players’ teams have made it into the top four of CPL 2020, so it has pushed them to wait for the play-offs.
Meanwhile, the Afghanistan cricket board’s Shpageeza League got started in Kabul on this Sunday. Earlier it was said that all the six Afghan players might travel to Kabul immediately after the end of CPL as per their respective team’s schedule in CPL to participate in the Shpageeza League. But, the schedule of IPL has changed their entire plan now. As six days mandatory quarantine is implemented in IPL rule, Afghanistan Cricket Board has decided to send their three IPL players to UAE, so that they can start their IPL campaign from the beginning of the tournament, without missing any matches.
An important thing to note down is Rashid Khan’s current form in CPL. He is now vibrant with his 11 wickets in the Caribbean based tournament; especially his economy has groomed well at the end of his CPL 2020 edition. This, in turn, has made the 21-year-old Afghan spinner ready to roar under the leadership of David Warner in SRH.
Similarly, the all-rounder Mohammed Nabi who is also an SRH player seems to be in the same kind of touch of form. He had been bowling and bowling well in the current CPL. Unfortunately, Nabi’s batting hasn’t been proved in the Caribbean lands, so he will be looking forward to posting more runs in the play-offs and of course in UAE. Consequently, the SRH bench strength has become even more worthy now with the current form of their Afghan mates.
The mystery Mujeeb Ur Rahman tops the bowling chart in CPL among these three IPL playing Afghan players. By scalping 13 wickets along with the economy rate of extraordinary 5.02 in CPL, Mujeeb is all set to bolster the bowling department of KXIP.
The three Afghan players are said to reach UAE by the 12th of September. Then comes the six days quarantine, which will let them be available right from the beginning of the IPL tournament if they test negative for the three COVID tests that would be taken within the period of the six quarantine days.
