Afghanistan has appointed former Indian batter Ajay Jadeja as the team’s mentor for the ODI World Cup 2023 in India starting from October 5. Afghanistan would like to scratch their losing streak in the World Cup which started with a nine-match losing streak in the 2019 World Cup held in England and Wales which the host won courtesy of a superior boundary count against New Zealand.
Afghanistan would look to kick off their World Cup campaign on a positive note as they now only have one warm-up game left after their first game against South Africa was abandoned due to rain. Afghanistan has a final warm-up against Sri Lanka in Guwahati on Tuesday.
Banking on Experience
Ajay Jadeja has played 15 test matches for India from 1992 to 2000, scoring 576 runs at 26.18 with 4 half-centuries to his name and a best of 96. He has also represented India in 196 One Day Internationals (ODIs) during the period, having scored 5359 runs at 37.47 with 6 hundreds and 30 fifties to his name in the format. He has also been part of 111 First Class and 291 List A games and has scored over 8000 runs in each format with 31 hundreds and 88 fifties.
A post on X by the Afghanistan Cricket Board confirming Jadeja’s appointment read “ACB Appointed former Indian Captain and middle-order batter Ajay Jadeja as Afghan Atalan’s Mentor for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.” Afghanistan hasn’t had a great run of form in the last few matches having lost their last five ODI matches including a 3-0 defeat against Pakistan and a group stage exit in the Asia Cup.
A Fresh Start
Interestingly Afghanistan Cricket Board also dropped a proposed series against West Indies to keep the players fresh. Afghanistan will open its 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup campaign against Bangladesh at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on October 7.
Afghanistan World Cup squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq
