Kabul : Afghanistan have gone for split captaincy across formats thereby removing Asghar Afghan as captain from all formats. The move comes just a month before the ICC World Cup 2019 gets underway in England and Wales with the squad for the tournament to be announced over the course of April.
In the changes announced , Gulbadin Naib has been appointed as the ODI captain and will lead the side at the World Cup. Rahmat Shah will be in charge of the Test side, with Rashid Khan taking the Twenty20 International reins.
Among Afghanistan’s newly appointed captains, only Rashid has prior experience of captaining the national team. The bowling all-rounder has led Afghanistan in four ODIs. Afghanistan also named Rashid, Shafiqullah Shafiq and Hashmatullah Shahidi as vice captains for ODIs, T20Is and Test cricket respectively.
Asghar, who replaced Mohammad Nabi as skipper in 2015, had a highly successful stint in the role. Under his captaincy, Afghanistan became a Full Member of the ICC, and in most recently, secured a historic maiden Test victory against Ireland in Dehradun.
Afghan, 31, led Afghanistan to 33 ODI wins, including a triumphant campaign at the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in 2018, where they beat West Indies in the final in Zimbabwe. In the shortest format, his record gets even more impressive with 37 wins out of 46 matches played.
In preparation for the World Cup, Afghanistan will tour Scotland and Ireland in May to in two ODIs each. Thereafter, they will lock horns with Pakistan and England in one-off ODIs before beginning their World Cup campaign against Australia on June 1.
