Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. As the best rated Sri Lankan player in run-chases in ODI history, he is often regarded as one of the innovative and greatest ODI batsmen of all time. Dilshan is considered to be a rare example of a cricketer with notable skills in all aspects of the game, who can bat, bowl, field and keep wicket. He is an aggressive right-hand batsman who invented the scoop, which has come to be known as the Dilscoop, a shot that hits the ball over the keeper. Apart from being an opening batsman, he is also a capable off-break bowler. Energetic in the field, he usually plays at the point region.
William Thomas Stuart Porterfield is an Irish cricketer who is currently the captain of the Ireland cricket team in Test and One Day International (ODI) formats and has also played first-class cricket for Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. A left-handed batsman, he has played for Ireland since 2006, and has captained Ireland at all levels from Under-13 upwards. During Afghanistan T20I series in March 2017, he passed 1,000 runs in T20Is and became the first player for Ireland to do so. In May 2018, he was named as the captain of Ireland's squad for their first ever Test match, against Pakistan.
Paras Khadka is a Nepalese cricketer and the current captain of the Nepal national team. All-rounder Khadka is a right-handed batsman, a right-arm medium-fast bowler, and an occasional off break bowler. He made his debut for Nepal against Malaysia in April 2004. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Nepal's first ever One Day International (ODI) match, against the Netherlands, in August 2018.
VRA Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, the home of VRA Amsterdam since 1939. It has a capacity of 4,500 spectators and regularly plays host to the Netherlands home games in the World Cricket League, Intercontinental Cup and CB40.
Samiullah Shenwari is an Afghan cricketer who represents Afghanistan in international level. He is a right-handed batsman and leg break bowler who normally acts as a batting all-rounder in the team.
Javed Ahmadi is an Afghan cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off break. He currently represents the Afghanistan national cricket team. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018.
Rahmat Shah Zurmatai is an Afghan cricketer who bats right-handed and bowls part-time leg-breaks and googly. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018. In April 2019, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) named Shah as the team's new Test captain, replacing Asghar Afghan. However, following the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Rashid Khan was named as the new captain of the Afghanistan cricket team across all three formats. Therefore, Rahmat was replaced before captaining the team in a Test match. In September 2019, in the one-off Test between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Rahmat became the first batsman for Afghanistan to score a century in Test cricket.
Subash Prasad Khakurel is a Nepalese cricketer. Subash is a right-handed opening batsman and a wicket-keeper. He made his debut for Nepal against Hong Kong in December 2011.
Afsar Khan Zazai is an Afghan cricketer. Khan is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman who is known for his batting skills. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018. He is the first Test cap for Afghanistan.
Aarif Sheikh is a Nepalese cricketer, who is the current vice-captain of the Nepal national under-19 cricket team. All-rounder Aarif is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler. He made his debut for Nepal against Hong Kong in May 2014.
The 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship was the second edition of the ICC World Cricket League Championship. It took place from 2015 until 2017, in parallel with the 2015-17 ICC Intercontinental Cup. Both Ireland and Afghanistan had been promoted to the main ICC ODI Championship and did not compete in this tournament. Instead, Kenya and Nepal were included in the tournament. The tournament was played in a round-robin format. All matches were recorded as List A matches, and those in which both teams had ODI status were also recorded as ODIs.
The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It decided the final qualification for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two teams, Afghanistan and the West Indies, qualified for the World Cup, joining the hosts and the seven teams who had already qualified through their ranking in the ICC ODI Championship. Afghanistan won the tournament, beating the West Indies by 7 wickets in the final. Afghanistan's Mohammad Shahzad was named the player of the match and Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza was named the player of the tournament.
The Afghan cricket team toured Zimbabwe between 8 and 29 October 2015. The tour consisted of five One Day International (ODI) matches, two Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) and two tour matches. This was the first time that Afghanistan had played a five-match bilateral ODI series.
The Ireland cricket team toured India during March 2017 to play five One Day Internationals (ODIs), three Twenty20 International (T20Is) and an ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Afghanistan. All the matches were played at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground, Greater Noida. Afghanistan won the T20I series 3–0 and the ODI series 3–2. Afghanistan also won the ICC Intercontinental Cup match, by an innings and 172 runs.
Ihsanullah is an Afghan cricketer who is a right-handed opening batsmen. He made his first-class debut for Afghanistan against the Netherlands in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup on 29 July 2016. Prior to his first-class debut, he played for the Afghanistan U-19 team in the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He made his Test cricket debut in March 2019.
The Afghanistan cricket team toured Bangladesh in September and October 2016 to play three One Day Internationals (ODIs) matches. This was Afghanistan's first full series against a Test-playing side other than Zimbabwe and was the first bilateral series between the two sides. It was also Bangladesh's first home bilateral ODI series against an Associate Nation since Ireland toured in 2008. Ahead of the ODI series there was a fifty-over warm-up game between the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI and Afghanistan in Fatullah.
The Ireland cricket team toured India in February and March 2019 to play three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and a Test match against the Afghanistan cricket team. It was Ireland's first Test played overseas and the first Test match between the two sides. All of the fixtures took place at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun. The ODI fixtures were part of Afghanistan's preparation for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In January 2019, the fixtures were brought forward by two days, to avoid clashing with the Indian Premier League.
