Afghanistan name experienced Rashid Khan as T20 capt

Star leg-spinner Rashid Khan was on Thursday named Afghanistan's new T20 captain, replacing veteran Mohammad Nabi.

Rashid, 24, was appointed captain ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup as well but had stepped down following the announcement of the squad, claiming he was not consulted over selection.

Nabi had stepped down post the 2022 T20 World Cup 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," said Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Mirwais Ashraf 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 glory to the nation."

T20 superstar Rashid said captaining the national team is a massive honour.

"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.

"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," said Rashid.

Rashid has so far represented Afghanistan in 74 T20Is and has 122 scalps to his name in the format, making him the third leading wicket-taker, behind Tim Southee (134) and Shakib Al Hassan (128).

He has also been in very high demand in franchise cricket, playing 361 T20 matches for 15 different teams around the globe from 2015 onwards and has bagged a mammoth 491 wickets which makes him the second bowler behind Dwayne Bravo (614) with the most scalps in the format.

Afghanistan are set to tour UAE in February where they will take on the hosts in three T20Is.