The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), which tweeted out the news on Wednesday morning, said that Ghazanfar sustained the injury during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe late last year, and “will be sidelined for a minimum of four months and will remain under treatment during this period”. That means he will also be out of the IPL that is set to be played from March 21 to May 25. Ghazanfar had bagged his maiden IPL contract recently, with Mumbai Indians.

Ghazanfar, who has 21 wickets from 11 ODIs so far, played three games for MI Emirates in the UAE’s ILT20 league in January after the tour of Zimbabwe. He wasn’t as effective as MI Emirates would have hoped him to be, though, bowling 7.1 overs in those three games, and picking up just one wicket with an economy rate of 9.48.

Twenty-year-old Kharote, who hasn’t played for Afghanistan since the ODI series against Bangladesh in Sharjah in November last year – he starred in Afghanistan’s win in the second game with 3 for 28 – has played seven ODIs and six T20Is since making his international debut in March 2024.

Afghanistan squad for the Champions Trophy

Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Ibrahim Zadran, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah (vice-capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fareeh Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Nangeyalia Kharote, Naveed Zadran, Noor Ahmad