Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS): Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has replaced fellow countryman Allah Ghazanfar in the Mumbai Indians squad ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season.

The teenage spinner Ghazanfar was ruled out of the tournament due to a fracture in the L4 vertebra, specifically in the left pars interarticularis which he picked up on Afghanistan's tour to Zimbabwe in December. The Mumbai-based franchise had acquired Ghazanfar for Rs 4.80 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction last November.

"Mumbai Indians (MI) picked Mujeeb-ur-Rahman as a replacement for Allah Ghazanfar for the upcoming edition of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Allah Ghazanfar is ruled out of the season due to an injury," the IPL statement read.

A right-arm off-spinner, Mujeeb, who has played 19 IPL matches and has 19 wickets to his name, has joined MI at a base price of Rs 2 crore. He last featured in IPL 2021 for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Before that, he played three seasons with the Punjab Kings (PBKS). The 23-year-old has claimed 275 wickets in 256 T20s at an economy of 6.75.

Interestingly, the 18-year-old Ghazanfar had drafted in for the injured Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad, which went on to win the 2024 Indian Premier League, but did not play a single game for the franchise.

The injury had also ruled the young off-spinner out of the upcoming Champions Trophy. He has been replaced by Nangyal Kharoti in Afghanistan’s 15-member squad for the tournament.

Mumbai Indians squad: Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Krishnan Shrijith, Raj Angad Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur.