\n<\/p>\n
Afghanistan’s Rising Star Cricketer AM Ghazanfar Eyes IPL Future<\/strong><\/p>\n Afghanistan\u2019s young spin bowler, AM Ghazanfar, is eager to secure his spot with the Mumbai Indians for the upcoming 2026 Indian Premier League. At just 19 years old, Ghazanfar has made strides in international cricket, representing Afghanistan in all formats. He feels he has matured as a player over the past year, especially since a back injury kept him from debuting in the IPL.<\/p>\n During his time off due to injury, Ghazanfar received strong support from Hardik Pandya, the captain of the Mumbai Indians. He values the motivation and encouragement he got from Pandya, saying, \u201cEven while I was injured, Hardik bhai kept in touch and pushed me to stay positive. I also had meaningful conversations with Tilak about the game. I sincerely hope Hardik bhai leads us again this season,\u201d he shared with PTI. Ghazanfar is set to play for Afghanistan in the Rising Stars Asia Cup in Doha soon.<\/p>\n This year has been busy for him, as he switched between various franchise tournaments. The highlight came when he made his Test debut against Zimbabwe, which also marked his first-class introduction. However, he admits that balancing so many matches was tough on his body. \u201cI played cricket back to back in nearly eight tournaments. By the time my Test debut arrived, I wasn\u2019t fully prepared for the additional strain. I\u2019ve recovered now and learned a lot,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Ghazanfar is known for his clever bowling, featuring backspin, googlies, and the carrom ball. He doesn\u2019t see himself strictly as an off-spinner. \u201cI don\u2019t think of myself as an off-spinner because I don\u2019t rely solely on off-spin. Nowadays, T20 cricket is all about the batsmen, and traditional spins don\u2019t offer much help. Variations like leg-breaks create more mystery and allow me to change my pace better,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n He believes Afghanistan thrives in producing unique spin bowlers due to a solid foundation in domestic cricket. \u201cDifferent countries might excel in fast bowlers or batsmen, but we have many spinners in our domestic leagues, which strengthens us globally,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Growing up, Ghazanfar looked up to players like Sunil Narine and R. Ashwin. He reminisces about a valuable encounter with Ashwin while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders. \u201cHe shared important tips. The IPL teaches you how to perform under pressure, even if you just sit on the bench,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n While enjoying the challenge that Test cricket brings, Ghazanfar\u2019s passion leans towards T20 matches. \u201cI appreciate Test matches, but I prefer playing T20s,\u201d he declared, as he looks forward to hearing from the Mumbai Indians about his future with the team.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Afghanistan’s Rising Star Cricketer AM Ghazanfar Eyes IPL Future Afghanistan\u2019s young spin bowler, AM Ghazanfar, is eager to secure his spot with the Mumbai Indians for the upcoming 2026 Indian Premier League. At just 19 years old, Ghazanfar has made strides in international cricket, representing Afghanistan in all formats. He feels he has matured as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[18046,26138,4543,16490,1104,26141,26139,17609,26140,15769],"class_list":["post-20765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afghanistan-cricket","tag-ghazanfar","tag-hardik-pandya","tag-ipl-2026","tag-mumbai-indians","tag-mystery-spin-bowling","tag-rising-stars-asia-cup","tag-t20-cricket","tag-teenage-spinner","tag-test-debut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}