Rashid Khan replaces Mohammad Nabi as Afghanistan's T20I captain

Afghanistan all-rounder Rashid Khan has been named the new T20I captain of the side. Former skipper Mohammad Nabi stepped down from the role after the conclusion of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in November. Rashid, the spin-bowling wizard, will now be leading the Afghanistan side in the shortest format of the game.

Rain played a spoilsport to Afghanistan’s World Cup campaign as a couple of their games were abandoned, and they ended up losing the remaining three. As a result, they failed to win a single game in the marquee event. They ended their T20 World Cup journey with two points to their name, both from rain-abandoned games.

After a poor outing, Nabi decided to step down from the role. The Afghanistan Cricket Board had been looking for the right candidate for the position since then, and finally announced Rashid as their T20I skipper on Thursday, December 29.

“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 Mirwais Ashraf, ACB Chairman.

“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 Khan told ACB on his appointment.

Rashid Khan is now the third-highest wicket-taker in the T20I format, after Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hassan (128) and New Zealand's Tim Southee (134). He has featured in 74 T20I matches for Afghanistan thus far and has 122 scalps to his name. He is also a big name in franchise cricket, where he has played 361 T20 matches for 15 different teams worldwide since 2015. 

With 491 wickets, he is the second-most successful bowler in the format behind Dwayne Bravo (614) in terms of the total number of wickets taken. In February, the Afghanistan National Team will travel to the UAE to play three Twenty20 Internationals against the hosts and that series will mark Rashid Khan's first assignment as Afghanistan's captain after 2019.