Birthday special: Mohammad Nabi – The legend rose with Afghanistan cricket
Afghanistan cricketer Mohammad Nabi was born in Logar Province in Afghanistan on this day in 1985. Nabi’s interest in the game was evident since his childhood as he picked the bat at the tender of age of 10. As time passed, Nabi continued to hone his skills before he was noticed by Mike Gatting when he hit a ton against the visiting Marylebone Cricket Club.
Rise of Nabi and Afghanistan
Nabi was subsequently included in the MCC’s Young Cricketers program in England. During his stint with the MCC, he made his first-class debut against Sri Lanka A and gradually became the central figure of Afghanistan’s rise from Division Five of the World Cricket League to earning a One Day International (ODI) status.
The all-rounder played all seven matches for Afghanistan in the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Division Five, scoring 108 runs and taking 10 wickets, but he grabbed the limelight when he bagged 11 wickets in the 2009 ICC World Cricket League Division Three to help Afghanistan reach the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier.
2022 #first-pictures😊 pic.twitter.com/oVF2t5a9yP
— Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) January 1, 2022
His international debut came in the ICC World Cup Qualifier against Scotland at Benoni in April 2009 where he slammed a half-century in a winning cause. Nabi was also a part of the nation’s first-ever first-class match during the Intercontinental Cup when he notched up a century (102) and claimed three wickets versus Zimbabwe XI.
He played a crucial role for the team in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, through which Afghanistan qualified for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. Nabi’s rise led him to the helm of the national team as he was appointed the skipper before the 2010 Asian Games, where he led the team’s runners-up finish. However, it was not before March 2013 that he was given the captaincy permanently.
On the global stage
After taking over as the full-time captain, he led the team in the ICC Intercontinental Cup in the UAE, as Nawroz Mangal was stripped of the captaincy. In the following year, he captained the team during the Asia Cup, when Afghanistan trumped Bangladesh to register their maiden victory over a Test-playing nation.
Nabi stood as the skipper for the whole of 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and the watershed moment arrived for the country when it reached to 2015 ODI World Cup in 2015.
Afghanistan managed to win only one match in the World Cup, and Nabi resigned as captain in April 2015, but life came to a different turn for him when he was found his name in Afghanistan’s squad for their first-ever Test match in May 2018, while he was also included in the 2019 ODI World Cup squad.
Nabi returned to lead the team during the T20 World Cup 2021 when Rashid Khan stepped down moments after the squad announcement owing to differences with the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). Although the team could not qualify further than the Super12 stage, Afghanistan did not have the play the qualifiers by the virtue of being ranked as one of the top 10 teams in the ICC T20I rankings.
From a 10-year-old kid whose family escaped the country amidst war and political turmoil, Nabi has gone on to be a part of every up and every down that Afghanistan cricket has witnessed.
