Zimbabwe bat against Afghanistan; six debutants across both teams

Toss Zimbabwe chose to bat vs Afghanistan

A total of six debut caps were handed out across the Zimbabwe and Afghanistan XIs after the hosts opted to bat in the Boxing Day Test of Bulawayo. Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine announced maiden Test caps for left-hand batter Ben Curran, brother of Sam and Tom Curran, and seam bowlers Trevor Gwandu and Newman Nyamhuri, while Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi named opener Sediqullah Atal, allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai and spinner AM Ghazanfar as the debutants.

For Afghanistan, Atal will slot in as opener, while Omarzai will shore up their batting from No. 5. Omarzai will also offer his medium-pace bowling, while right-arm offspinner Ghazanfar will partner left-arm wristspinner Zahir Khan and part-time left-arm spinner Zia-ur-Rehman. Rashid Khan was not available for selection; he had pulled out of the first Test owing to personal reasons.

As for Zimbabwe, their seam bowling is rather inexperienced with debutants Gwandu and Nyamhuri to bowl alongside Blessing Muzarabani. The allrounder’s spot went to Brian Bennett, leaving both Sikandar Raza and Johnathan Campbell on the bench.

This encounter marks Afghanistan’s maiden Boxing Day Test match and Zimbabwe’s first at home since 1996. Neither side has won a Test in nearly four years, with their last Test victories coming against each other in March 2021. While sunny conditions welcomed both sides for the first ball, rain and thunderstorms are forecast for later in the day.

Zimbabwe: 1 Joylord Gumbie, 2 Ben Curran, 3 Takudzwanashe Kaitano, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Dion Myers, 6 Craig Ervine (capt), 7 Brian Bennett, 8 Brandon Mavuta, 9 Newman Nyamhuri, 10 Trevor Gwandu, 11 Blessing Muzarabani

Afghanistan: 1 Sediqullah Atal, 2 Abdul Malik, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), 5 Azmatullah Omarzai, 6 Afsar Zazai, 7 Shahidullah, 8 AM Ghazanfar, 9 Zia-ur-Rehman, 10 Naveed Zadran, 11 Zahir Khan

Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx