Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai set to miss MLC 2025

Afghanistan allrounder Rashid Khan will be absent from the 2025 edition of Major League Cricket (MLC). It has learned that Rashid, who plays for MI New York, has opted out of the tournament, which gets underway on Friday, to take a break. MINY will be hurt by Rashid's absence because he was their best bowler in the most recent MLC season, taking ten wickets at 6.15 despite his team finishing fourth with only two wins in seven matches. Rashid last played for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2025, when they lost to Mumbai Indians in the elimination round. With just nine wickets and an economy rate of 9.34 and an average of 57.11, this was Rashid's worst IPL season. Since his IPL debut in 2017, it was the first time his wickets column had not reached double digits. Rashid was dominated by batsmen all season long because he gave up 33 sixes, the most by any bowler in an IPL season. Another Afghanistan all-rounder, Azmatullah Omarzai, is expected to miss MLC as well as MINY's plans, as it has been learned that he has also taken a break from playing. Like Rashid, Omarzai, too, last played in the IPL where he was part of Punjab Kings, who finished runners-up. However, Naveen-ul-Haq (MINY), Noor Ahmed (Texas Super Kings), and Waqar Salamkheil (Seattle Orcas) have all joined their respective teams, which is good news for the MLC. This comes after there were concerns regarding the participation of players from Afghanistan due to the travel ban imposed by the US government on citizens of 12 countries. Afghanistan is one of the twelve nations on the list, and the ban went into effect this week. Burma, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are the other countries. Two other Afghanistan players - Gulbadin Naib and Fazalhaq Farooqi, who play for Orcas - are understood to be awaiting visas to travel to play in MLC.