Former Sri Lankan cricketer Avishka Gunawardene appointed as the batting coach of the Afghanistan cricket team

The Afghanistan cricket team will have a new batting coach. The official handle of Afghanistan Cricket confirmed that former Sri Lankan batsman Avishka Gunawardene will don the hat of the batting coach of the Afghanistan national team.

In an international career that lasted almost a decade, Gunawardene represented Sri Lanka in 6 Tests and 61 ODIs. While he scored 181 runs in Test cricket, he plundered 1708 runs in the ODI format of the game. Gunawardene has also scored a hundred in ODI cricket as well.

“Former Sri Lankan batsman and coach, Avishka Gunawardene has been appointed as Afghanistan National Team’s batting coach,” read a tweet by the official handle of the Afghanistan Cricket Board.

You can see the tweet below

Former @OfficialSLC batsman and coach, Avishka Gunawardene has been appointed as Afghanistan National Team's batting coach. pic.twitter.com/7P64V6E0vU

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) August 17, 2021

Afghanistan is currently experiencing a dire situation

Afghanistan is experiencing a dire situation, as the country has now come under the clutches of Taliban rule. However, the media manager of the Afghanistan side, Hikmat Hassan confidently stated that the country will participate in the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup that will take place in the months of October and November this year in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Hikmat Hassan added that the Afghanistan side will also face West Indies and Australia in a tri-nation tournament to prepare for the T20 World Cup as well.

“Yes, we will play in the T20 World Cup. The preparations are on and the available players will be back to training in Kabul in the next few days. We are looking for a venue for the tri-series involving Australia and West Indies and that will be the best preparation for the showpiece event. Let’s see how that pans out,” said Hassan according to Cricket Next.

The Afghanistan cricket team experienced an excellent run in their previous series against the Zimbabwe side. While they thrashed the Zimbabwe side in the three-match T20I series by a margin of 3-0, the Test series between the two sides ended in a stalemate.