Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, center right, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Pakistan’s Haris Sohail during the Cricket World Cup match between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Headingley in Leeds, England, Saturday, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Allrounder Rashid Khan has been appointed Afghanistan captain across all three cricket formats at age 20.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board tweeted on Friday that former captain Asghar Afghan will be Khan’s deputy.
Afghanistan has only just returned home from the World Cup in England and Wales, where the team lost all of its nine matches and finished last in the 10-team event.
Khan and another senior member of the team, Mohammad Nabi, had criticized their board after Afghan was replaced as skipper by Gulbadin Naib in April, just weeks out from the World Cup.
Naib’s captaincy was questioned during the World Cup, especially during Pakistan’s chase when he chose to bowl his medium pace in the death overs while the Pakistan batsmen were clearly struggling against the spinners.
In another off-field controversy, Mohammad Shahzad was sent home on fitness grounds, but the burly opening batsman later claimed it was not true he was unfit.
Khan, ranked the No. 5 allrounder in ODIs and No. 1 bowler in Twenty20 rankings, had a poor World Cup during which he took only six wickets in eight matches at an average of 69.33.
He had a forgetful group match against host England, returning figures of 0-110, the joint second-most runs conceded by any bowler in a one-day international.