The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) had tweeted about Ghazanfar’s absence from the Champions Trophy earlier this week, mentioning that he had sustained “a fracture of the L4 vertebra” during Afghanistan’s tour of Zimbabwe last month. Ghazanfar, who had bagged his maiden IPL contract after a bright start to his ODI career, will be out of cricket for four months.
Until November last year, Mujeeb too was out injured for five months due to a right phalanx (hand) sprain. He returned to action at the Abu Dhabi T10 and then played all three T20Is for Afghanistan on their tour of Zimbabwe, before flying to South Africa for the SA20. He wasn’t picked by Afghanistan for the Champions Trophy, as according to Ahmad Suliman Khil, their interim chief selector, “he has been advised by his doctor to focus on T20s for a while to ensure his full recovery before returning to ODIs”.
Mujeeb had gone unsold at the IPL 2025 auction, but now joined MI at a fee of INR 2 crore (approx. US $230,764).