The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Wednesday announced their decision to re-appoint former skipper Asghar Afghan as the captain of the national team across formats bringing an end to Rashid Khan's short leadership tenure. ACB had removed Asghar Afghan from the captain's post just three months before the World Cup (Reuters)
Asghar Afghan will replace Rashid Khan as Afghanistan captain
Rashid had been appointed the captain across formats after World Cup 2019 campaign ended
Asghar was stripped of captaincy before the World Cup
In a strange turn of events, former captain Asghar Afghan has been re-appointed as the national captain thereby reigniting the leadership debate which had started with his axing in April 2019. Wrist-spinner Rashid Khan had been leading Afghanistan in all formats since the team's unceremonious exit from the World Cup 2019, with Asghar acting as his deputy. It is yet unknown why the leadership change was necessitated.
Earlier in July 2019, Rashid Khan had succeeded Gulbadin Naib, who had led Afghanistan in their World Cup campaign
The ACB had removed Asghar Afghan from the captain's post just three months before the World Cup and appointed Gulbadin in his place, a move which was met with a lot of criticism and backlash from fans and the Afghan players.
Gulbadin Naib had himself stated that Asghar Afghan would always be his captain while Rashid and senior player Mohammad Nabi also voiced their displeasure with the appointment.
But after the marquee tournament where Afghanistan failed to win a single game, the ACB decided to hand over the reins to young Rashid with Asghar Afghan as the vice-captain. Rashid was already the captain of the T20I team while Rahmat Shah was the Test captain.
And now the cricket board has decided to go back to square one - choosing Asghar to lead the team in all formats.
Afghanistan had a disappointing campaign in the World Cup, losing all nine league matches and finished in the last place. Naib led the team in a total of 12 ODI matches in which he managed to win two games and lost 10
Under Rashid, Afghanistan were recently whitewashed in a 3-match ODI series in Lucknow before the Asian team went on to win the T20I series 2-1.
Asghar Afghan, on the other hand, had led the team in 56 ODIs and won 36 of them while losing just 21. They had also managed to tie a game against India in the Asia Cup last year.
0 Comments