The Afghanistan cricket team has done a number of Miracles in The International Cricket in such a short span of time. The cricket team of Afghanistan was formed in the year 2001. The team qualified for its first T20 World cup in 2010 by winning ICC Twenty Twenty World Cup Qualifiers 2010. Despite failing to qualify for the 2011 ODI World Cup, the team received their ODI status. Later on, the team also succeeded to qualify for the ICC ODI World Cup 2015. In the same World Cup, the team registered its historic First World Cup match victory by a 1-wicket win over Scotland under the leadership of Mohammad Nabi, who is also called “the president” of Afghanistan cricket.
In the T20 world Cup 2016, Afghanistan conquered a victory against West Indies, who later on won the World Cup title in the same season. By the passage of time, the team started witnessing Young promising talents who were performing well globally in different leagues as well in the internationals. Rashid khan, who is considered as one of the most prominent spinners, especially in T20s, made his debut for the Afghanistan cricket team in 2015, which brought a big revolution In Afghanistan Cricket. Rashid Khan motivated a large number of people from his country to get involved in cricket. As a result, other young spinners such as Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman and Noor Ahmed arrived in international cricket.
In the recent ODI World Cup in India last year, the Afghanistan team made a splendid performance. The team firstly defeated the former champions of the tournament, England by 69 runs. Following the victory against England, Bangladesh defeated their neighbours, Pakistan by an easy 8 wicket win. Afghanistan also defeated Sri Lanka and Netherlands. For a team who could not even manage a single win in their previous ODI World Cup, succeeded in winning 4 matches in the season and that too against such big countries, under the captaincy of Hasmatullah Shahidi.
The team also made it to their first ever World Cup semi-final in the T20 World Cup 2024, by defeating big countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh. Not just players, the coaching staff has also played a major role in the development of Afghanistan cricket team. Jonathan Strott, who was appointed as head coach of Afghanistan in 2022, has used his experience while guiding and helping players to perform well in crunch situations and handle their nerves. In the ODI World Cup 2023, the ACB also appointed Ajay Jadeja as the assistant coach of the team.
