Afghanistan, earlier this year, hosted Zimbabwe for a 2-match Test series and a 3-match T20I series in UAE. While the Test series was drawn one match apiece, the hosts Afghanistan whitewashed the T20I series quite comfortably. Exploring it further, Afghanistan lost the first Test in just over 2 days and that prompted the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to make a change in captaincy.
Asghar Afghan was sacked as Test and ODI captain and Hashmatullah Shahidi has been entrusted with the captaincy responsibilities in these two formats. Rahmat Shah will be Shahidi’s deputy in both these formats. Even though Afghanistan lost the first Test, they won the second Test match courtesy of a great partnership between Hashmatullah Shahidi and Asghar Afghan who scored unbeaten 200* and 164 respectively in that game! The 150+ score did not come for Afghan’s rescue but the unbeaten double century helped Shahidi become their next Test captain!
According to ACB, the decision to sack Afghan as captain was based on an internal investigation conducted by the board itself. They had found that some of the poor decisions made by Afghan had cost them the Test match which lasted just over 2 days! But is it a healthy environment if you pick or sack a player/captain based on just one performance?! The ACB can only answer this question!!
On the other hand, ACB are yet to appoint a new T20I captain. Young wrist-spinner Rashid Khan is set to remain as vice-captain of the team while the board awaits to pick a new captain. With World T20 2021 just months away, ACB should be hurried to make this decision. They don’t want to end World T20 2021 same as ODI World Cup 2019 where they failed to even win a single match!
“Afghanistan Cricket Board members approved the proposition to go ahead with split-captaincy for the national team, and thereby effectively removing Asghar Afghan as skipper. As per the decision, left-hander Hashmatullah Shahidi is appointed the new ODI and Test Captain of the National team while Rahmat Shah will serve as the Vice-captain for both formats. Furthermore, it was decided that all-rounder Rashid Khan will remain the Vice-Captain of the T20I team while the decision to appoint the new captain will be taken soon,” stated ACB in their media release.
“The decision to remove Asghar Afghan from captaincy was taken based on an investigation conducted by ACB’s Investigative committee which concluded that some of Afghan’s decisions as the captain of the team resulted in Afghanistan’s loss to Zimbabwe in the first Test of the series between both sides in Abu Dhabi in March,” added the media release.
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