BAN vs AFG: Rashid Khan Breaks 15-year-old Record To Become Youngest Test Captain

Rashid overtakes Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu, who made his debut as Test captain just eight days older than Rashid against Sri Lanka at Harare in 2004

Afghanistan's newly appointed captain in all formats, Rashid Khan revealed his name and number jersey on Wednesday, ahead of the one-off Test against Bangladesh. The leggie has now become the youngest captain to lead a team in Test Cricket. With this feat, Rashid has eclipsed Tatenda Taibu’s long-standing record. Rashid is leading his team against Bangladesh at the age of 20 years 350 days. He will overtake Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu, who made his debut as Test captain just eight days older than Rashid against Sri Lanka at Harare in 2004.

It's Rashid Khan's first Test as captain!

He has won the toss and Afghanistan will bat in the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram. Follow #BANvAFG live ⬇️ https://t.co/kHXVx32oOc pic.twitter.com/hSF3p6N71s — ICC (@ICC) September 5, 2019

“(I am) pretty excited. It is a new role to be a captain of the team and will try my best to be positive and enjoy the game,” Rashid said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

Youngest to captain in each of the international cricket formats.... in ODIs: 19y-165d - Rashid Khan for Afghanistan in Mar 2018

in T20Is: 20y-224d - Tshepo Phaswana for Botswana in May 2019 in Tests: 20y-350d - Rashid Khan at Chattogram (Chittagong) today! #BANvAFG — Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 5, 2019

Rashid also took to Twitter and posted a picture of him wearing the jersey and wrote, “New test match Jersey.”

New test match Jersey 🇦🇫🇦🇫🇦🇫❤️ pic.twitter.com/Kyu2RFShji

— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) September 4, 2019

The name and number on the Test jersey is an initiative by the ICC to popularise the longest format of the game and is also a part of the World Test Championship (WTC) which was announced last year. Afghanistan is not a part of the Championship as only the top nine full member nations -- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies -- compete in a total of 71 Test matches across 27 bi-lateral series over two years. The top two teams with most points on April 30, 2021, will then contest in the WTC final on June 2021 in the UK.