Afghanistan’s new T20I captain: Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s Cricketing Wizard, has been appointed as AfghanAtalan’s Captain for the T20I format, replacing the senior all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, after he stepped down from the role after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

Mirwais Ashraf, the chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, said Thursday that Rashid 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”.

He also said that Rashid has the experience of leading Afghanistan in all three formats. “I am sure he will come out on top and will bring more glory to the nation,” Ashraf said.

Rashid meanwhile said he was pleased to have been chosen and said it was a huge honor for him.

“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”. He said.

Rashid Khan has so far represented Afghanistan in 74 T20I matches and has 122 wickets to his name in the format, making him the third highest wicket-taker in the format behind Tim Southee (134) and Shakib Al Hassan (128).

He has also been in very high demand in franchise cricket, playing 361 T20 matches for 15 different teams around the globe from 2015 onwards and has bagged a mammoth 491 wickets which makes him the 2nd bowler behind Dwayne Bravo (614) with the most wickets in the format.

Afghanistan National Team is set to tour UAE in February where they will take on the hosts in three T20Is, which will be Rashid’s first tour as Afghanistan’s skipper after 2019.