Afghanistan to tour Zimbabwe in February

Zimbabwe have successfully negotiated a five-match ODI series with Afghanistan to plug the gap in their cricket calendar. They last played internationals in November - a 50-over tri-series with West Indies and Sri Lanka - but were looking at a six-month hiatus before their next assignment - a tour of Sri Lanka. This has now changed with Afghanistan scheduled to reach Harare on February 13 before the first game on February 16.

Both teams have done well in their most recent matches, although Zimbabwe's were three months ago, when they beat West Indies to make the tri-series final but lost to Sri Lanka. Afghanistan, too, have not played ODI cricket since October but they have been active in the shortest format, winning the inaugural Desert T20 Challenge, which also featured Ireland, Scotland, Oman, Hong Kong, Namibia, Netherlands and UAE.

Additionally the head-to-head record between the two countries favours Afghanistan, who have never lost a series to Zimbabwe since beating them in 2015 to register their first series win over a Full Member.

Zimbabwe and Afghanistan's A teams will also play a five-match one-day series in Harare between January 27 and February 5.