Stats: Rashid Khan makes his Test captaincy debut against Bangladesh

It didn’t take long for Rashid Khan to be regarded as a senior player of Afghanistan at the International arena. The leg-spinner set record books on fire and helped Afghanistan witness new heights. Less than three years since his national debut and even before turning 20, Rashid became the Afghanistan captain during the Men’s ODI World Cup Qualification tournament last year. Thus, he became the youngest player in the International cricket to lead a team.

After a disastrous CWC 2019 campaign, the Afghanistan board decided to award the captaincy of all the three formats to their star player. On Thursday, in their first international match since the mega event, Rashid Khan led his side in the one-off Test match against Bangladesh in Chattogram. Rashid, who would be turning 21 a couple of weeks, made his Test captaincy debut. At the age of 20 years and 350 days, Rashid Khan became the youngest captain in the history of Test cricket as well.

The youngest captain in Men’s Test cricket:

The previous youngest was Tatenda Taibu who was only 20 years and 358 days old when he made his Test captaincy debut. Taibu led his team during the Harare Test match back in 2004. Till date, only Rashid and Taibu stand as the Test captains before turning 21. India’s Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi is next on the list as he led India in the 1962 Caribbean tour at the age of 21 years and 77 days.

These three players take the first three places in the list of youngest Test skippers across Men and Women. New Zealand Women Ruth Symons and Debbie Hockley led their team in this format before turning 22. Waqar Younis currently holds the record for being the youngest to lead the team to a Test win. Waqar was not more than three weeks old after turning 22 when Pakistan won the 1993 Karachi Test against Zimbabwe under his leadership.

The youngest captain in Test cricket: (Men/Women)

(Stats as on September 5, 2019)