Former Afghanistan skipper has announced his retirement from international cricket. Asghar shared a video on his Facebook page announcing the news. The 33-year-old will play his last international match against Namibia in their third T20 World Cup 2021 match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
The Afghan veteran scored 10 runs in the clash against Pakistan on October 30. He did not get to bat against Scotland where Afghanistan registered a record win by 130 runs. In the warm-up games, he was not impressive registering scores of 5 and 1 against South Africa and West Indies.
Outstanding captaincy record
Asghar took over as Afghanistan’s limited-overs captain in 2015. He will retire as their most successful captain in both the formats. He led his country in 59 ODIs and 52 T20Is respectively and has an outstanding win percentage of 61.60 and 81.73 respectively. His 42 wins in T20Is is the most by any captain in the format.
His winning percentage is way better than former Indian skipper MS Dhoni. The only captain that comes close to his record (major teams) is former Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has a winning percentage of 78.37 with 29 wins from 37 games.
Batting career
Asghar made his international debut in 2009 against Scotland in an ODI game. His T20I debut came against Ireland next year. He will retire as the current third-highest run-scorer for Afghanistan in T20Is with 1,351 runs from 74 T20Is at an average of 21.79 including four half-centuries. He is also the fourth-highest run-scorer for his country in the ODI format with 2,424 runs from 114 games at an average of 24.73 including one century and 12 half-centuries.
Afghanistan have won one of the two games they have played in the tournament. They posed a major threat to Pakistan but were undone by Asif Ali’s brilliance in the run chase. They will look for another big win against Namibia to stay in hunt for the semi-final berth.
