[Exclusive] Gulbadin Naib picks his all-time India-Afghanistan combined XI

Published - 07 Aug 2025, 14:01 IST | Updated - 07 Aug 2025, 14:07 IST

Gulbadin Naib has picked his all-time combined India-Afghanistan XI. He opted for the aggressive duo of wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz and southpaw Yashasvi Jaiswal to open the batting. He maintained the left-right combination spilled at Nos. 3 and No. 4 as well.

The 34-year-old picked Rashid Khan as the captain of the team while Mujeeb Ur Rahman was the sole frontline spinner alongside the likes of death-over specialists Jasprit Bumrah and Naveen-ul-Haq.

"I would like to go with the left-right opening combination - Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Yashasvi Jaiswal to open the innings. Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Mohammad Nabi, and Hardik Pandya are the next to occupy my XI," Naib said during an exclusive conversation with CricTracker.

"Rashid Khan will captain my side. One player between Azmatullah Omarzai and Ravindra Jadeja as an all-rounder. Jasprit Bumrah, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Naveen-ul-Haq are other players part of my all-time XI," he added.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Mohammad Nabi, Hardik Pandya, Azmatullah Omarzai/Ravindra Jadeja, Rashid Khan (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq

Speaking of Naib's international career, he has represented Afghanistan in 89 ODIs and 75 T20Is up until now, scoring 1332 and 945 runs in the two formats respectively. A handy all-rounder, Naib has also accounted for 74 and 33 wickets, respectively. He made his international debut in August 2011.

Naib recently played for Band-e-Amir Dragons in the 2025 edition of the Shpageeza Cricket League. The Dragons recorded three wins in eight matches. Naib has also played in franchise leagues all around the globe like the Indian Premier League (IPL), International League T20 (ILT20) and Bangladesh Premier League, (BPL).

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Naib was recently named in Afghanistan's preliminary 22-member squad for the upcoming Asia Cup and tri-series. He will undoubtedly be a key player to the national setup for the aforementioned tournaments.