Stanikzai to miss start of WC qualifiers

Afghanistan suffered a blow ahead of their 2019 World Cup qualifying campaign Monday when captain Asghar Stanikzai was ruled out of the start of the tournament after undergoing surgery to have his appendix removed, the International Cricket Council announced.

The 30-year-old middle order batsman will miss the warm-up games this week as well as the tournament opener against Scotland on March 4 although officials expect him to be fit to face hosts Zimbabwe two days later.

Stanikzai has played 83 one-day internationals and made 1,565 runs.

Afghanistan are in Group B of the qualifying tournament which is being staged in Zimbabwe and will face the home country, Nepal, Hong Kong and Scotland in the first round.