Afghanistan select new captain for Tests and ODIs

Asghar Afghan has been removed as the national captain across all formats after an investigation in to Afghanistan’s loss against Zimbabwe in the first Test, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has announced. Hashmatullah Shahidi has been handed over the captaincy duties for the Test and ODI format while Rahmat Shah will continue to serve as the vice-captain under Shahidi.

The decision on appointing the new T20I captain will be taken soon as per the Afghanistan Cricket Board press release. Rashid Khan will continue to serve as the vice-captain in T20 Internationals.

“The decision to remove Asghar Afghan from captaincy was taken based on an investigation conducted by ACB’s Investigative committee which concluded that some of Afghan’s decisions as the captain of the team resulted in Afghanistan’s loss to Zimbabwe in the first Test of the series between both sides in Abu Dhabi in March,” ACB said in a release.

The decision comes as a shocker as Asghar Afghan has a better record as Afghanistan captain and he has scored a fighting 164 in the second Test against Zimbabwe to help his team to win and levelling the series 1-1.

Asghar Afghan has represented Afghanistan in 6 Tests, 114 ODIs and 72 T20Is. The 33-year-old scored 440 Test runs at an average of 44. He also scored 2424 ODI runs at an average of 24.73 along with 1341 T20I runs at an average of 21.98.

He led Afghanistan to 2 Test wins, 34 ODI wins and 42 T20I wins.

Asghar Afghan was previously sacked before the commencement of ICC World Cup 2019. A decision which didn’t go well with team’s top players Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. Afghanistan fared poorly in the tournament as the captaincy reigns were given back to the Asghar Afghan.

Asghar changed his name from Asghar Stanikzai to Asghar Afghan during his tenure as Afghanistan skipper, in ‘honour of protecting the national identity of Afghan citizens’.

Hashmatullah Shahidi represented Afghanistan in 5 Tests, 41 ODIs and 4 T20Is. Shahiid became the first ever Afghanistan batsman to score a double century in Test cricket in March 2021.

Shahidi scored 353 Test runs at an average of 58.83 while he accumulated 1154 ODI runs for his team at an average of 32.97.