Rashid Khan has been named Afghanistan’s T20I captain on Thursday, replacing veteran Mohammad Nabi. Rashid, 24, was appointed captain ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup as well but stepped down following the announcement of the squad, claiming that he wasn’t consulted while picking the squad.
Mohammad Nabi stepped down as Afghanistan T20I captain after the recent ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
"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. Rashid Khan has the experience of leading Afghan Atalan 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," said Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Mirwais Ashraf in a statement.
Rashid called captaining the national team is a massive honor and said: "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.”
Rashid has so far represented Afghanistan in 74 T20Is and has 122 scalps to his name in the format, which makes him the third leading wicket-taker in the format behind Tim Southee (134) and Shakib Al Hassan (128).
In T20s, Rashid Khan has 491 wickets in 361 matches for various teams and is the second highest wicket-taker after Dwayne Bravo, who has 614 scalps to his name.
Afghanistan is set to tour UAE in February where they will take on the hosts in three T20Is, which will be Rashid Khan’s first tour as Afghanistan’s skipper after 2019.
(PTI inputs)
