The Mumbai Indians of the Indian Premier League have been gutted by an announcement, on Wednesday, February 12, by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) that their star spinner Allah Ghazanfar is going to be out for at least four months with an injury he picked up while playing for his national team in Zimbabwe last year. A minimum of four months’ absence means that Ghazanfar will not travel to India next month for participation in IPL 2025.
The 18-year-old mystery spinner has played just one Test match and 11 ODIs so far for Afghanistan and became the latest signing for the Mumbai Indians, who bought him for Rs 4.8 crore at the IPL-2025 mega auction held last year. He was surely tipped to make his mark with Hardik Pandya’s side.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board confirmed Ghazanfar’s injury on X on Wednesday morning, drawing attention to the news that he will miss the Champions Trophy 2025.
“The young spin-bowling sensation of Afghanistan, AM Ghazanfar, is going to be ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy due to a fracture in the left pars interarticularis of L4 vertebrae, which he suffered during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe in recent history; he will be out for a minimum of 4 months and will undergo treatment during this time” said ACB in a press release.
There Shall Be No Other option but to bring Nangyal Kharoti into the squad from the travelling reserves as a direct replacement for Ghazanfar.
“Nangyal Kharoti was promoted from the reserves pool to join the ODI team for the Champions Trophy on October 29. Mujeeb Ur Rahman continues to be out of the ODI selection until he fully recovers,” reads the release.
Ghazanfar is yet to make his IPL debut and was signed by the Mumbai franchise in a battle with Kolkata Knight Riders during the IPL 2025 mega auction on November 24, 2024.
The Paktia-born spinner has played 19 T20 matches so far with 30 wickets. He last played for the MI Emirates in ILT20 last month.
With Ghazanfar busy shooting a movie in his mother’s hometown, Mumbai will look up to their spin hopes on New Zealand white-ball captain Mitchell Santner, alongside Karn Sharma from India. Karn won the IPL title with the Mumbai Indians in 2017, having played for Royal Challenger Bangalore in IPL 2024. In 84 IPL matches, Karn has taken 76 wickets for four different IPL teams.
On the other hand, Santner has so far trapped 120 batters in 109 T20I matches played so far for the Black Caps. Santner signed the dotted line with MI for Rs 2 crore.
