Afghanistan’s spin wizard Rashid Khan will be the new captain of the nation’s T20I team, confirmed Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Thursday. Rashid has replaced the senior all-rounder Mohammad Nabi following the latter’s withdrawal from the role after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
Rashid, who is the third leading wicket-taker in the shortest format, expressed his excitement upon being given the big responsibility. In an official statement, the right-arm spinner 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.”
Notably, Rashid has so far represented Afghanistan in 74 T20I matches, in which the top-quality leg-spinner has taken 122 wickets. He is only behind New Zealand’s pacer Tim Southee (134) and Bangladesh’s all-rounder Shakib Al Hassan (128) in the wickets tally.
Regarding Rashid’s appointment as the T20I skipper, Mirwais Ashraf, the ACB Chairman, said the leggie has enough experience of playing across the world which will come handy in leading the national side.
“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 AfghanAtalan 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 Ashraf.
