Zimbabwe, who won the first Test by ten wickets, have named an unchanged playing XI
Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat vs Zimbabwe
Afghanistan welcomed back legspinner Rashid Khan to their Test XI, after he recovered from a finger injury sustained during the PSL, in a bid to square the series against Zimbabwe. Khan is one of five changes to the Afghanistan XI, which includes two debutants.
Allrounder Shahidullah Kamal, a former Under-19 player who has not been capped in any format internationally, was brought in to bowl left-arm spin and bat in the middle-order, while left-arm seamer Sayed Shirzad, who has played two ODIs and four T20Is, replaced Yamin Ahmadzai. Afghanistan have also added some experience to the batting with Javed Ahmadi replacing Abdul Malik, who bagged a pair in the first Test, which Zimbabwe won inside two days, and Nasir Jamal, who was brought into the middle order in place of Munir Ahmed. The wristspinning pair of Abdul Wasi and Zahir Khan have also been dropped from the XI that did duty in the first Test.
Shirzad is the only specialist seamer in the XI after Afghanistan chose to go spin-heavy again, on a surface that is not expected to offer as much assistance to the quicks as the first Test’s strip did. There was significantly less grass on it than last week. That may mean a slightly easier time for Afghanistan’s line-up, who were blown away by Zimbabwe’s quicks, who shared 16 wickets between them in the first Test.
Zimbabwe were unchanged from the team that beat Afghanistan by ten wickets in the first fixture, with three quicks and no specialist spinner but several all-round options: Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Sean Williams and Wesley Madhevere can all chip in with a few overs.
Zimbabwe are chasing a first Test series win since 2004.
Afghanistan: 1 Ibrahim Zadran, 2 Javed Ahmadi, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Nasir Jamal, 6 Afsar Zazai (wk) 7 Asghar Afghan (capt), 8 Shahidullah Kamal, 9 Rashid Khan, 10 Amir Hamza, 11 Sayed Shirzad
Zimbabwe: 1 Prince Masvaure, 2 Kevin Kasuza, 3 Tarisai Musakanda, 4 Sean Williams (capt), 5 Wesley Madhevere, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Ryan Burl, 8 Regis Chakabva (wk), 9 Donald Tiripano, 10 Blessing Muzarabani, 11 Victor Nyauchi
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent