Mohammad Asghar Afghan ( ps, محمد اصغر افغان), is a former Afghan

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and former captain of the Afghanistan national cricket team. Asghar is a right-handed batsman and a medium-fast bowler. In May 2018, he was named as the captain of Afghanistan, for their inaugural Test match, played against India. He made his Test debut for Afghanistan, against India, on 14 June 2018. On 2 August 2018, he changed his last name from Stanikzai to Afghan. In April 2019, the

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; ps, د افغانستان کرکټ بورډ, fa, کرکت بورد افغانستان; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in the Afghanistan. It is Afghanista ...

(ACB) dropped him as captain of the Afghanistan team across all three formats. However, in December 2019, the ACB reappointed Asghar Afghan as the captain of the Afghanistan cricket team across all formats. In March 2021, during the series against Zimbabwe, Afghan played in his 50th T20I as a captain of Afghanistan. In May 2021, he was sacked from his role as the national team captain. In October 2021, ahead of Afghanistan's match against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

in the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...

, Afghan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket following the game.

Early career

Afghan made his representative international debut for Afghanistan U-17s in the 2004 ACC Under-17 competition, where he played his debut match against the United Arab Emirates Under-17s. Afghans's debut match for the senior squad came against

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

in the

2004 ACC Trophy The 2004 ACC Trophy was a cricket tournament in Malaysia, taking place between 12 and 24 June 2004. It gave Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international Limited overs cricket, one-day cricket and also h ...

, as well as the

2006 ACC Trophy The 2006 ACC Trophy was a cricket tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, taking place between 14 August and 26 August 2006. It gave associate and affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience in international one-day cricket. This was ...

and the

2007 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2007 ACC Twenty20 Cup was played from 27 October until 2 November 2007 in Kuwait. The ten competing teams were: Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UAE. Group stage Group A Group A sa ...

. Afghan was a member of the Afghanistan side, that from 2008 to 2009 won the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of t ...

Division Five,

Division Four The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

and Division Three, earning them promotion to Division Two and allowing them to take part in the

2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier The 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in April 2009 in South Africa. It was the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. The tournament is the renamed version ...

where they gained

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

status. In the World Cup Qualifier, Afghan made his List-A debut for Afghanistan against

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and later in the tournament he made his

debut against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. His first-class debut came in Intercontinental Cup against a Zimbabwe XI in which Afghanistan drew the match. To date, Afghan has played in 4 first-class matches for Afghanistan. Later, in November 2009 he was a member of Afghanistan's

2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup was played between 22 and 30 November 2009 in the United Arab Emirates. The twelve competing teams were: Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UAE. ...

winning squad.

Rising career

Afghan made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

debut against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the

2010 Quadrangular Twenty20 Series in Sri Lanka 2010 Quadrangular Twenty20 Series in Sri Lanka was a tournament of Twenty20 cricket matches that were held in Sri Lanka from 1 to 4 February 2010. The four participating teams were Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland and Sri Lanka A. The matches were ...

. Later on in February 2010, Afghan played a single match in Afghanistan's victorious

2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was played from 9–13 February 2010 in the United Arab Emirates and a part of ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier series. The top two teams progressed to play in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the international champ ...

, playing in the final against Ireland. Afghan was later named in Afghanistan's squad for the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was won by England, who defeated Australia in the fina ...

. In April 2010, Afghan was a key member of Afghanistan's

2010 ACC Trophy Elite The 2010 ACC Trophy Elite was a cricket tournament in Kuwait, taking place between March 31 and April 9, 2010. It gives Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international one-day cricket and also helps forms ...

winning squad which defeated

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

in the final. Afghan ended the tournament as the third leading run scorer with 253 runs, including a score of 151 runs from 83 balls against

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

. On March 1, 2014, Afghan's 90* helped

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

team to register their win over

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

which was their first win against test playing nations. He and Samiullah Shenwari put on a 164 runs partnership for the sixth wicket which is the fifth highest Partnership for the sixth wicket in the history of ODIs and the third highest ODI Partnership for

. In February 2018, he had his appendix removed, therefore missing the start of the

2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two te ...

tournament. In September 2018, he was named in Kandahar's squad in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the

Afghanistan Premier League The Afghanistan Premier League (APL) ( ps, ; fa, ), officially Gulbahar Afghanistan Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a Twenty20 cricket franchise tournament run by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), held in the United Arab Emira ...

tournament. He was the leading run-scorer for the Kandahar Knights in the tournament, with 264 runs in eight matches. In April 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

. The following month, in the ODI series against Scotland, he became the second cricketer for Afghanistan to play in 100 ODI matches. In September 2021, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Afghan, Asghar 1987 births Living people Pashtun people Cricketers from Kabul Afghan cricketers Afghanistan Test cricketers Afghanistan One Day International cricketers Afghanistan Twenty20 International cricketers Asian Games medalists in cricket Cricketers at the 2010 Asian Games Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup Asian Games silver medalists for Afghanistan Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Kandahar Knights cricketers Afghan cricket captains