Afghanistan national cricket team
The Afghanistan men's national cricket team (Pashto: د افغانستان کرکټ ملي لوبډله, Persian: تیم ملی کریکت افغانستان) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid-19th century, but it was only in the early 21st century that the national team began to enjoy success. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995, becoming an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001 and a member of the cricket confederation, Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2003. After nearly a decade of playing international cricket, on 22 June 2017 full ICC membership (and therefore Test status) was granted to Afghanistan. Alongside Ireland, this took the number of Test cricket playing nations to twelve. Afghanistan is the first country to achieve Full Member status after holding Affiliate Membership of the ICC. In view of the persistent conflict and insecurity in Afghanistan, following this status, the team moved to a new home ground in Dehradun, in India. The current home ground of the Afghanistan Men's Cricket team is the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the UAE.
| Association | Afghanistan Cricket Board | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | |||||||||||||
| Test captain | Hashmatullah Shahidi | ||||||||||||
| One Day captain | Hashmatullah Shahidi | ||||||||||||
| T20I captain | Rashid Khan | ||||||||||||
| Coach | Jonathan Trott | ||||||||||||
| Batting coach | Andrew Puttick | ||||||||||||
| Bowling coach | Hamid Hassan | ||||||||||||
| Fielding coach | Shane McDermott | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
| Test status acquired | 2017 | ||||||||||||
| International Cricket Council | |||||||||||||
| ICC status | Affiliate Member (2001) Associate Member (2013) Full Member (2017) | ||||||||||||
| ICC region | Asia | ||||||||||||
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| Tests | |||||||||||||
| First Test | v. India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India 14–18 June 2018 | ||||||||||||
| Last Test | v. Ireland at Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi; 28 February – 1 March 2024 | ||||||||||||
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| One Day Internationals | |||||||||||||
| First ODI | v. Scotland at Willowmoore Park, Benoni; 19 April 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Last ODI | v. Ireland at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah; 12 March 2024 | ||||||||||||
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| World Cup appearances | 3 (first in 2015) | ||||||||||||
| Best result | 6th place (2023) | ||||||||||||
| World Cup Qualifier appearances | 2 (first in 2009) | ||||||||||||
| Best result | Champions (2018) | ||||||||||||
| Twenty20 Internationals | |||||||||||||
| First T20I | v. Ireland at P. Sara, Colombo; 1 February 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Last T20I | v. Ireland at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah; 18 March 2024 | ||||||||||||
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| T20 World Cup appearances | 6 (first in 2010) | ||||||||||||
| Best result | Super 10 (2016) | ||||||||||||
| T20 World Cup Qualifier appearances | 4 (first in 2010) | ||||||||||||
| Best result | Champions (2010) | ||||||||||||
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| As of 18 March 2024 | |||||||||||||
The team is ranked 10th in Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket as of February 2023, and holds the world record for the 2nd highest ever T20I score, with their score of 278/3 against Ireland at Dehradun on 23 February 2019.
In August 2021, concerns and doubts were raised over the participation of the Afghanistan national cricket team in the future international matches after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan . Concerns were raised over the safety of Afghan national cricketers and their families who were still in Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover on 15 August 2021. As of 31 August 2021, three of the Afghanistan women's national cricket team had evacuated to Canada, while the others were afraid of how they, as women, would be treated by the Taliban.
Taliban spokesmen stated that the Taliban would not disrupt the men's cricket team's participation in international matches and that they would allow Afghanistan to play its first ever bilateral series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka which was scheduled to start in September 2021. The Pakistan Cricket Board announced in August 2021 that the tour would be rescheduled to 2022. This was later moved to 2023 and the tour took place between 24 – 27 March 2023.