Rashid Khan Replaces Mohammad Nabi As Afghanistan's T20I Captain

Rashid Khan termed the honour of captaincy a huge responsibility and said that he feels pretty comfortable in charge of a great bunch of guys.

Afghanistan's Rashid Khan (L) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka's Dhananjaya de Silva. ( Image Source :Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP )

In a recent announcement by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), star leg-spinner Rashid Khan has been named the country's T20I captain. Rashid will replace Mohammad Nabi at the helm of affairs. While Rashid had earlier been named the skipper of the Afghanistan's T20I contingent before the T20 World Cup 2021, he had decided to step down by claiming that the team selection was not done taking his opinion into consideration.

It should be noted that Afghanistan's Nabi had resigned as the captain following the team's winless run at the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

"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," Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Mirwais Ashraf was quoted as saying in a statement.

"Rashid Khan has the experience of leading Afghanistan 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," he added. 

Captaincy is a huge responsibility: Rashid Khan

Meanwhile, Rashid has termed the honour of captaincy a huge responsibility.

"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," he said.

"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," the 24-year-old added.

Despite being 24, Rashid has rich experience of international cricket, having played 5 Tests, 86 ODIs and 74 T20Is already. He has scalped 34, 163 and 122 wickets in them respectively. In addition, he plays T20 leagues around the world and has tasted fair bit of success in all of them. He will ply his services for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023.