The ICC has confirmed that the Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 has approved Khil as a replacement player for Shahzad in the Afghanistan squad for the remainder of the tournament.
Shahzad had retired hurt after suffering a knee injury in Afghanistan’s warm-up fixture against Pakistan. While the wicket-keeper batsman featured in their opening games against Australia and Sri Lanka, the aggravated injury has ruled him out of participation in the rest of the competition.
Since the 2015 World Cup, Shahzad has been Afghanistan’s second highest run-scorer in one-day internationals with 1843 runs in 55 innings. Ali Khil, his replacement, was a part of Afghanistan’s squad in the ICC Men’s U-19 Cricket World Cup 2018 and scored 185 runs in four innings. Having also featured in the U-19 squad in the 2016 edition, Khil made his ODI and test debut against Ireland last year and was a part of Afghanistan’s first ever test win.
The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee, before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.
The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 consists of Geoff Allardice (ICC, ETC chairman), Campbell Jamieson (ICC representative), Steve Elworthy (CWC representative), Alan Fordham (host representative), Harsha Bhogle and Kumar Sangakkara (both independent representatives).
