Rashid Khan to lead Afghanistan in all formats

The turmoils in Afghanistan cricket are not over. In another twist, Afghanistan Cricket Board has appointed Rashid Khan as the team captain in all formats. The board has also announced the appointment of Asghar Afghan as Rashid’s vice-captain. Afghan, the former captain, was sacked before the World Cup.

Also read: Team review – World Cup of disappointments and misery for Afghanistan

Previously, Afghanistan had three different captains in three formats. Gulbadin Naib was the ODI captain and led the side in the World Cup. Rashid was already the T20I leader while Rahmat Shah was slated to be the captain of the Test team. Now the cricket board has decided to have one captain for all formats.

@rashidkhan_19 appointed as Team Afghanistan’s new Captain across all three formats while Asghar Afghan appointed as Vice-Captain. pic.twitter.com/s78Nso67aF

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) July 12, 2019

Afghanistan had a horrible outing in the 2019 World Cup as they ended up losing all their nine games. The least-experienced team in the tournament finished at the bottom place. Naib’s captaincy was criticised plenty of times. The all-rounder had an average campaign and it was his spell in the end overs that cost Afghanistan a match against Pakistan.

Asghar Afghan was previously a long-serving captain of the side. He had taken over the leadership role from Mohammad Nabi. He also captained his side in their maiden Test appearance against India and to their maiden Test victory against Ireland. Afghan was sacked just before the World Cup which led to a lot of players speaking out against the move.

Rashid’s first assignment as the Test captain will be the one-off Test against Bangladesh in September. They will then engage in a tri-series with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe as other participants. In November-December, they will play out a full-fledged tour against West Indies.