Asghar Afghan, former Afghanistan captain, was given a guard of honour by Namibia in his final match. The 33-year-old has already declared that he will be donning the Afghanistan jersey for one final time in Abu Dhabi. As soon as he walked in, the opposition players gave him a guard of honour in shear respect to a man who led Afghanistan in its inaugural Test match in Bengaluru three years ago. He was out for 31 off 23.
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“Afghanistan’s ex captain Asghar Afghan who holds the highest winning streak as a captain in T20 internationals surpassing Indian legend MS Dhoni by one extra win, decides to bid farewell with all formats of cricket in Afghanistan’s third match against Namibia at @T20WorldCup," the ACB had said, making his decision public. “Afghanistan Cricket Board welcomes and respects his decision, expresses gratitudes for his services to the country. It will take a lot of hard work for young Afghan cricketers to fill his shoes," they added.
The right-handed batsman has played in six Tests, 114 ODIs and 74 T20Is after making debut in 2009. He has scored 440 runs at an average of 44 in Tests, 2424 runs in ODIs at an average of 24.73 and 1351 runs in T20Is at an average of 21.79. He was the most successful T20 captain for Afghanistan, winning 42 matches. He was also the third top most run scorer for the country, scoring 1382 runs.
Known earlier as Asghar Stanikzai, the cricketer first made a mark playing under 19 cricket for the war-ravaged nation back in 2004. As the years passed, he became regular in the senior team as well. He was named the skipper of Afghanistan across all formats; he led them in the inaugural Test match against India in 2018 in Bengaluru. Nonetheless, the selectors pulled the plug, naming three different captains in different formats ahead of 2019 World Cup. While Rehmat Shah was named Test captain, Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan were named skipper for ODI and T20 respectively.
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