Star leg-spinner Rashid Khan was named as the new Afghanistan T20I Captain in place of veteran Mohammad Nabi.
Before the 2021 T20 World Cup, Rashid, 24, was also named captain, but he resigned after the team was revealed, claiming he hadn’t been included in the selection process. Earlier, Nabi stepped down from his role following the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
The Afghanistan cricket board’s chairman, Mirwais Ashraf, proposed Rashid take over as the legspinner had previously captained his nation in seven T20 Internationals in 2019. Also in 2018–19, Rashid captained Afghanistan in seven One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Tests.
During Rashid’s first stint as captain, Afghanistan won four of the seven games played under his direction, including two victories over the West Indies in Lucknow.
What ACB Chairman said about Rashid Khan?
“Rashid Khan is a massive name in Afghanistan Cricket. He has colossal experience of playing the format around the world which will help him take the team to a new level in the format,” said Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Mirwais Ashraf in a statement.
“Rashid Khan has the experience of leading AfghanAtalan in all three formats before and we are happy to have him as our skipper for the T20I format again. I am sure he will come out on top and will bring more glories to the nation.” T20 superstar Rashid said captaining the national team is a massive honour.
“Captaincy is a huge responsibility. I have the experience of leading my country before, there is a great bunch of guys with whom I have a good understanding and feel pretty comfortable.
“We will try to stick together, will work hard to put things on the right track and bring pride and joy to our country and nation,” said Rashid.
Rashid Khan – The new skipper of Afghanistan
In the past two years, the ACB has been eager to give Rashid the captaincy. Rashid turned down the T20I leadership position in June 2021 because he thought it would severely effect his ability to play. However, he then selected as the captain for the 2021 T20 World Cup in July.
Rashid resigned from his position as captain a month before the competition started, claiming that the selection committee and ACB had not taken his approval before choosing the team. Nabi then assumed the captaincy.
Rashid is the third-leading wicket-taker in the T20I format, behind Tim Southee (134) and Shakib Al Hassan (128), having played for Afghanistan in 74 of the matches to date and took 122 wickets.
In franchise cricket, where he has played 361 T20 matches for 15 different teams worldwide since 2015, he has also been in high demand. With 491 wickets, he is the second-most successful bowler in the format behind Dwayne Bravo (614) in terms of dismissals.
Afghanistan is ready to play three Twenty20 Internationals against the UAE in February.
