Asghar Afghan

Starting from U-17 to U-19 to become a three-format player for Afghanistan, Mohammad Asghar Afghan (previously called Asghar Stanikzai) has been an integral asset in his country's growth. Afghan is a middle-order batsman and also a handy medium pacer. He has led Afghanistan from strength to strength and has been a pillar for his country gaining the ODI and the Test status. 

After being a successful force in the ACC U-19 event, Afghan made it into the senior side when he made his ODI debut against Scotland, in 2009, during the World Cup Qualifier for the 2011 event. Next year, he made his T20I debut in the 2010 World T20.

Later that year, he made it big when he hit 151 off 83 balls against Bhutan in the 2010 ACC Trophy. During the 2014 Asia Cup, he scored an unbeaten 90 against Bangladesh to help Afghanistan register its first win over a Test-playing nation.

Afghan was a vital part of Afghanistan’s squad during the 2015 World Cup Down Under as he scored a half-century against Sri Lanka in the tournament. The next couple of years went south for Asghar as a batsman. However, he redeemed himself when he scored his maiden international century against Ireland in 2017.

In 2018, the Kabul-born was handed the captaincy role and he led his nation to their maiden Test match, against India. A year later, ACB dropped out as the captain across all formats, before the 2019 World Cup. Although, the board corrected their mistake to reappoint Afghan as captain in December 2019. In 2021, he smashed his maiden Test century against Zimbabwe to become Afghanistan’s second Test centurion.

Over the years, Afghan’s approach has been questioned and often touted to be as an ultra-defensive batsman but his passion for the game has always been up-top. Now, with flamboyant players like Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Karim Janat coming up, Azghar would get a cushion to be more expressive. 

(As of March 2021)