Akcel United Kabul vs Nangarhar Cosmic: APL 2026 head to head

APL head-to-head record

The record between these two clubs is a blank page. Neither Akcel United Kabul nor Nangarhar Cosmic has played an APL match, and the fixture list had not been published, so there is no date, no ground and no result to put in the table yet — only the two squads the ACB released after the 3 November draft in Dubai. When the first meeting is played, the scorecard will go here. The 2018 meetings between the cities will not: Kabul Zwanan and Nangarhar Leopards were different clubs, and their results stay with them.

The 2018 meetings: same cities, different clubs

The cities met twice in the 2018 league stage, and they split the pair. On 9 October, at Sharjah, Nangarhar Leopards posted 188 for 5 and Kabul Zwanan chased it down with seven wickets in hand, reaching 191 for 3 in 17.5 overs. Three days later the roles reversed: the Leopards made 182 for 5, Kabul managed 167 for 9, and Nangarhar won by 15 runs. One win each, and both matches close enough to remember.

Their seasons then went in opposite directions. Nangarhar's ended in the semi-final on 19 October, bowled out for 64 by Balkh Legends, who won by 171 runs. Kabul's ran all the way to the final on 21 October, where Balkh chased down 132 for 9 with four wickets in hand — Qais Ahmad taking 5 for 18, Rashid Khan named player of the series. The Leopards finished fourth in the league; Kabul finished as runners-up. None of it counts toward 2026.

What survives is the personnel. Hazratullah Zazai, now in Akcel's squad, scored 322 runs for Kabul Zwanan in 2018, including 124 against Nangarhar and a 144-run stand with Luke Ronchi. On the other side of the ledger, Johnson Charles returns in 2026 wearing Akcel colours after scoring 131 runs in eight matches for the Leopards in 2018 — his best, 43, came against Kabul Zwanan on 12 October, the day Nangarhar won by 15 runs. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Akcel's first Gold pick, was Charles's Nangarhar team-mate that season. And Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akcel's Diamond pick, was named in the Leopards' 2018 squad and never played a match — his Twenty20 debut came a year later, so 2026 is his APL debut, against the club that once held his name on a teamsheet.

Where the squads differ

Akcel's squad is built around pace and spin. The Platinum round brought Johnson Charles, a two-time T20 World Cup winner and the CPL's all-time leading run-scorer, taken fourth overall; Diamond brought Fazalhaq Farooqi, joint-highest wicket-taker at the 2024 T20 World Cup, and Sri Lanka's Dushmantha Chameera. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the first Gold pick, adds off-spin, and the rest of the 19 leans the same way: Imran Tahir's leg-spin, Hazratullah Zazai's power at the top, D'Arcy Short and Curtis Campher among six overseas players.

Nangarhar's build starts with experience. Alex Hales, the Platinum pick and third of the whole draft, is a 2022 T20 World Cup winner and the first Englishman to score a T20I century; Diamond brought Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh's great all-rounder, and Darwish Rasooli, with Kamindu Mendis the first Gold pick. The overseas count is five against Akcel's six — Hales, Shakib, Mendis, Junaid Siddique of the UAE and Amir Jangoo of West Indies — and Nangarhar also won both the Silver and Emerging games at the APL Huddle, giving them the first pick in the opening round of each of those categories, a small edge in building a local core.

Key battles to watch

The captains set the tone. Azmatullah Omarzai leads Akcel — an all-rounder who bowls at good pace and hits the ball hard — against Rahmat Shah, whose game is built on patience and long innings. It is a contrast of temperaments as much as of teams: Omarzai's side is built to attack with the ball, Rahmat's to hold its shape. The captaincy itself is fresh on Nangarhar's side: Rahmat only took the role on 3 November, when the ACB switched him with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who now leads Paktia.

The bowling match-up is where this fixture could be won. Farooqi's left-arm pace against Hales at the top is the first duel to watch — Hales has faced plenty of left-arm pace, but few who swing the new ball the way Farooqi does — and at the other end, Mujeeb's off-spin against Shakib, two men who have spent a decade reading each other in international cricket. Then there is Zazai against the Nangarhar attack: his highest 2018 score, 124, came against these same opponents.

Coaches and mentors

The names in the dugouts are as big as the names on the field. Akcel's head coach is Shane McDermott, with Nikhil Chopra as mentor; Nangarhar's dugout pairs Toby Radford with Mark Boucher, the former South Africa coach and keeper. Both groups were settled at the leaders' draft on 25 October, nine days before the players were picked. The mentor list for the season also includes Irfan Pathan with Kandahar, Waqar Younis with Paktia and Tillakaratne Dilshan with Balkh — every dugout has a name the crowd will know. The full leadership groups are in the mentors, coaches and captains announcement.

When do they play each other?

No date yet — the fixture list had not been published, so nobody knows when these two meet, or on which ground. The certainties are the frame around it: the season opens on 27 December 2026 in the UAE, the first ball is at 5:30 PM Afghanistan time (5:00 PM Dubai time), and the league has advertised 24 matches, twenty in the league stage and then the knockout. The date, the ground and the result will go on this page as soon as the ACB publishes them; until then the schedule and the points table are the places to watch.

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