Afghanistan shines in rain-affected 28-overs-a-side opening ODI

Afghanistan have won the toss and elected to field first against Zimbabwe.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and had no hesitation in fielding in the opening ODI against Zimbabwe. The toss was delayed by nearly four hours due to persistent rain, reducing the game to a 28-overs-a-side affair.

Zimbabwe handed debuts to left-hand batter Ben Curran and left-arm seamer Newman Nyamhuri. For Afghanistan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz was ruled out of the ODI series "due to a Grade 2B quadriceps injury along with a bony hip flexor injury," according to the ACB. Mohammad Ishaq was named as his replacement for the series. Additionally, Mujeeb Ur Rahman was also rested from the series after a "careful evaluation of his recovery process".

Ben, 28, is the middle brother of England internationals Sam and Tom Curran, and the son of former Zimbabwe international and coach Kevin Curran. Ben represented Northamptonshire until 2022 before moving to play cricket in Zimbabwe, where he spent much of his childhood.

"The weather condition is also suitable, and the wicket is also spicy and hopefully we can take advantage of the first ten overs," Shahidi said at the toss. "I was here for the last game [T20I] and saw it was a good bowling track and we can do well if we bat with focus."

Craig Ervine, the Zimbabwe captain, also wanted to field but expected the surface to be conducive to bowling all day. He also hoped for the middle and lower order to step up.

Zimbabwe: Ben Curran, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Dion Myers, Craig Ervine (capt), Sean Williams, Brian Bennett, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava, Sikandar Raza, Trevor Gwandu, Newman Nyamhuri

Afghanistan: Sediqullah Atal, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Abdul Malik, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Rahmat Shah, Fazalhaq Farooqi