Ending a four-year wait for his return to Indian Premier League (IPL), Afghanistan off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has been roped in as a replacement for his countryman AM Ghazanfar in Mumbai Indians’ (MI) squad for the upcoming season.
Photo: ANI
Ending a four-year wait for his return to Indian Premier League (IPL), Afghanistan off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has been roped in as a replacement for his countryman AM Ghazanfar in Mumbai Indians’ (MI) squad for the upcoming season.
Ghazanfar was ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy, starting Wednesday, and subsequently the IPL, due to a back injury. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) had tweeted about Ghazanfar’s absence from the Champions Trophy earlier this week, mentioning that he had sustained “a fracture of the L4 vertebra” during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe last month.
Advertisement
Ghazanfar, who was picked by an IPL franchise after a bright start to his ODI career, will be out of action for four months.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Mujeeb, who made his tournament debut as a 17-year-old for Punjab Kings and represented them in 18 games across three seasons from 2018, last represented the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the 2021 IPL season.
Mujeeb has 275 T20 wickets at an average of 23.67 and an economy rate of 6.75. Most recently, he was with Paarl Royals at the SA20, where his side lost to finalists Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Qualifier 2. He was Royals’ highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with 14 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 23.14.
Until November last year, Mujeeb too was out injured for five months due to a right phalanx (hand) sprain. He returned to action at the Abu Dhabi T10 and then played all three T20Is for Afghanistan on their tour of Zimbabwe, before flying to South Africa for the SA20.
He wasn’t picked by Afghanistan for the Champions Trophy, as according to Ahmad Suliman Khil, their interim chief selector, “he has been advised by his doctor to focus on T20s for a while to ensure his full recovery before returning to ODIs”.
Mujeeb had gone unsold at the IPL 2025 auction, but now joined MI at a fee of Rs 2 crore.
Advertisement
