Afghanistan players to begin training after long break

Afghanistan cricket team is set to resume training on Sunday at the Kabul Cricket Stadium under the supervision of local coaches.

On Saturday, a COVID-19 awareness meeting was held for Afghanistan players and other officials of the Board to educate them about the health guidelines to be maintained during the camp.

After a long break, the Afghanistan cricketers will resume training from Sunday at the Kabul Cricket Stadium. As the country witnessed lockdown due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Afghanistan cricketers have been training indoors for the last couple of months. But starting Sunday, they will be part of a month-long training programme, which aims to get players fit and ready for the upcoming tournaments.

While the top players, including Rashid Khan, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, will be part of the camp, they will be monitored by the local coaches.

Sportstar understands that with the international travel restrictions in place, the team's head coach Lance Klusener is stuck in South Africa, but he will be constantly coordinating with the local coaches during the camp, which  will  focus on  strengthening  batting,  bowling  and  overall  performance.

"The boys have been inactive for close to two months, so they will have to slowly get into the swing of things. We have to monitor the bowlers’ workloads, build up fitness levels again, so that will be something how the training camps will look," Klusener had told this publication last week.

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The top officials at the Afghanistan Cricket Board have confirmed that the camp will be held under the relevant health guidelines and n close coordination  with  the ICC,  WHO  and  the  ministry of public health of Afghanistan.

On Saturday, a COVID-19 awareness meeting was held for players and other relevant officials at ACB head office to educate them about the health guidelines to be maintained during the camp.

A few days ago, the ACB management discussed the future course of action with the coaches and the captain, via video-conferencing. 

The players who will be part of the camp: Asghar Afghan (Captain),  Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazrathullah Zazai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi Najibullah Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen ul Haq, Shapoor Zadran,  Qais Ahmad, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Azmatullah Omerzai, Samiullah Shinwari, Usman Ghani, Mohammad Shahzad, Sayed Shirzad,  Darwish Rasooli,  Zahir Khan Paktin, Farid Malik,  Hamza Hotak and Sharafudin Ashraf.