The 22-year-old WK-Batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz is set to make his test debut on the only test against Ireland.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz makes Test debut
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi announced that young WK-Batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz will make his test debut in the match.
He has played 58 ODIs and 52 T20Is to date and amassed a total of 2662 runs in both formats.
On the other hand, Ireland has handed a debut to three players including medium-pace bowlers Craig Young, and Barry McCarthy, and left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Theo van Woerkom.
It is the first international game to be played in the Tolerance Oval and becomes the 122nd ground to host a test cricket. Afghanistan has been facing Ireland for the second time in a test, with their first meeting in Dehradun in 2019.
Afghanistan has played eight tests so far, while Ireland played seven tests after obtaining the test status in 2017.
Afghanistan has victories over Ireland, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe once while Ireland lost all seven tests so far.
Blue Tigers played their last test against Afghanistan tour of Sri Lanka 2024 last month while Ireland played their last test in July 2023 against England.
Coming to the match, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat where Noor Ali Zadran and Rahmat Shah were dismissed by Mark Adair for 7 and 0 respectively. Afghanistan scored 66 runs at the time of writing on day 01 at Tolerance Oval.
Afghanistan playing 11
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmat Shah, Noor Ali Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Karim Janat, Zia-ur-Rehman, Nijat Masood, Naveed Zadran, Zahir Khan
Ireland Playing 11
Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Andrew Balbirnie (c), Peter Moor, Curtis Campher, Andy McBrine, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Craig Young, Theo van Woerkom.
