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White ball captain Mitchell Santner and seamers Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry have all been declared fit for New Zealand's upcoming Twenty20 series against India, their final ‌preparation for next year's World Cup.Santner, who missed ‌the recent Test series ‍against West Indies with a groin strain, will skip the three one-day internationals ⁠in India in early January ⁠as he continues his recovery.The spinner will be back to lead ‍the side in five T20s later that month, ahead of the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8.Henry missed the latter part of the West Indies series with a calf injury and will also skip the ODI series as part of his ‌managed return.Jamieson was rested for the West Indies Test series but returns to a pace unit missing Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne, who ‍are both playing T20 franchise ⁠league cricket ‌and will join the squad towards the end of the tour.Seamers Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes made impressive starts to their international careers this year and will both be on the plane to India, but Will O'Rourke, who has a back issue, and Blair Tickner, who dislocated his shoulder, were unavailable.Devon Conway has decided to cut short his spell in the SA20 league in South Africa to play both series and is the only wicketkeeper-batsman ​named in the T20 squad.New ‌Zealand, who finished runners-up in the 2021 T20 World Cup, face South Africa, Afghanistan, ⁠Canada and the United ‍Arab Emirates in the group stage of next year's tournament. "Playing in the sub-continent is obviously very different to what we're used to in New Zealand," said coach Rob Walter. "Any opportunity we can get to expose our guys to those conditions can only be ​a good thing, especially prior to a T20 World Cup in the subcontinent." T20 squad: Mitchell Santner (captain), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Bevon Jacobs, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Robinson, Ish SodhiODI squad: Michael Bracewell (captain), Adi Ashok, Kristian Clarke, Josh Clarkson, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Kyle Jamieson, Nick ⁠Kelly, Jayden Lennox, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae, Will Young 

South African skipper Donovan Ferreira said his team will speed up preparation for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup, with the series against Pakistan starting in Rawalpindi from Tuesday.South Africa finished runners-up to India in the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup, and will be among the favourites for the coming edition which India and Sri Lanka co-host in February-March.Ferreira said Monday that this week’s three-match series provides an ideal opportunity.“It is important to build up towards the World Cup,” he said. “I think this is the big stepping stone for us towards the World Cup.”South Africa will miss David Miller - announced captain for this series but ruled out with injury - as well as Gerald Coetzee and Kwena Maphaka, who are both injured.They have rested regular T20I skipper Aiden Markram, batters Tristan Stubbs and Ryan Rickelton, and spearhead Kagiso Rabada.Despite less experience in the side and losing to Namibia earlier this month, Ferreira hopes his team will play an aggressive brand of cricket.“The Namibia game is past now and I think we need to play an explosive brand of cricket with the bat or with the ball, as we have got exciting players in the side.”Pakistan skipper Salman Agha also sees the series as an opportunity to build towards the World Cup.“We need to further our preparations and overcome the mistakes we committed in the Asia Cup,” said Agha of the regional event last month where they finished runners-up to India.Agha said he was excited to see star batter Babar Azam back in the T20I side for the first time since December 2024.“Babar is a world class player and he will benefit our team with his batting,” said Agha.“We have good batters and bowlers in the side so we need to build up towards the World Cup.”The remaining two matches are on Friday and Saturday, both in Lahore.

Spinner Nasum Ahmed produced a miserly spell to help Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by eight runs Tuesday and keep their Asia Cup hopes alive.Bangladesh posted 154-5 batting first as opener Tanzid Hasan starred with his 52 off 31 balls in Abu Dhabi.Nasum and fellow spinner Rishad Hossain then took two wickets each before pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman returned figures of 3-28 to help bowl out Afghanistan for 146.Taskin Ahmed also claimed two wickets as he wrapped up the innings with the final ball of the match.Bangladesh ended Group B with two wins and one defeat in their three outings.Their chances of reaching the Super Four stage will depend on the final match of the group between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on Thursday.Bangladesh will go through if Sri Lanka win, but an Afghan victory would see them progress and leave the Sri Lankans and Bangladesh to be split on net run-rate.Left-arm spinner Nasum rocked the Afghanistan chase early when he struck with the first ball of the innings to trap Sediqullah Atal lbw and then grabbed the key wicket of Ibrahim Zadran, for five, in the fifth over.He returned figures of 2-11 from his four overs.Rishad dismissed Gulbadin Naib caught and bowled for 16 with his leg-spin and then sent back the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 35 to dent Afghanistan.Azmatullah Omarzai attempted to revive the chase with three sixes in his 16-ball 30 but holed out off Taskin.Skipper Rashid Khan made one final push with a quickfire 20 but fell to Mustafizur, who struck again to be on a hat-trick which was avoided by Fazalhaq Farooqi.Earlier Tanzid put on an opening stand of 63 with Saif Hasan, who made 30, as the two racked up 59 in the powerplay.Rashid broke the stand as he struck in his first over by bowling Saif and Afghanistan's spinners soon took control.Left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad trapped skipper Litton Das lbw for nine to further peg back Bangladesh.Tanzid raised his fifty off 28 deliveries but fell to Noor in the next over.Towhid Hridoy added a 20-ball 26 but although Bangladesh managed just 67 runs in the final 10 overs, it proved enough for the win.

Kamindu Mendis' hard hitting dragged Sri Lanka over the line as they beat Zimbabwe by four wickets in the first of their Twenty20 series at Harare Sports Club Wednesday.Mendis blasted an unbeaten 41 runs off 16 balls to see the visitors to victory with five balls to spare after they had struggled earlier in their innings.Zimbabwe were put into bat and, with opener Brian Bennett scoring 81, reached 175-7 off their 20 overs, to which Sri Lanka replied with 177-6. Pathum Nissanka top scored with 55 runs.The second T20 international is also at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday.BRIEF SCORESSri Lanka 177 for 6 (Nissanka 55, Kamindu 41, Ngarava 2-19) beat Zimbabwe 175 for 7 (Bennett 81, Chameera 3 for 30) by four wickets