Mohammad Asghar Stanikzai who is commonly known as Asghar Afghan is a right-handed middle-order batsman with right-arm medium-fast bowling action and the former captain of the Afghanistan national cricket team in all three formats of International Cricket. He changed his name from Asghar Stanikzai to Asghar Afghan in August 2018. Asghar Afghan was born in Kabul, Afghanistan but raised in Pakistan as a refugee along with his teammates Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Nabi, Hamid Hassan, and Shapoor Zadran.
ACB The Afghanistan Cricket Board announced its new captain ahead of World Cup 2019, Gulbadin Naib and dropped Asghar Afghan as captain from all three formats of ICC. Asghar formed a partnership of 164-runs along with Samiullah Shenwari March 1, 2014, against Bangladesh, Afghanistan registered their maiden win against Test-playing nation. This is the highest ever 6th wicket partnership in the history of ODI; Afghan scored 90* unbeaten.
He played the inaugural edition of Afghanistan Premier League in September 2018 for Kandahar Knights and became leading runs scorer with 264 runs. Asghar captained the Afghan Cricket Team for their maiden Test match against India in June 2018 after obtaining Test cricket status from ICC. He has played Asian Cup 2004, 2006 and ACC T20 Cup 2007 for his team while representing Afghanistan U17’s.
Asghar has played all qualifying List A matches to obtained Test, ODI and T20I status for his team. He made his List A debut in the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier against Bermuda and ODI debut against Scotland. Asghar made his first-class cricket debut for Afghanistan XI against Zimbabwe Xi in the Intercontinental Cup. In April 2019, he was named in Afghanistan’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Asghar Afghan Career Stats
| Match Format | Test | ODI | T20 | First Class |
| Matches | 2 | 94 | 56 | 24 |
| Runs Scored | 103 | 1,794 | 1,031 | 1,457 |
| 100s/50s | -/1 | 1/8 | -/3 | 5/3 |
| Highest | 67 | 101 | 62 | 145 |
| 6s/4s | 5/12 | 50/138 | 53/63 | Â 42/148 |
| Batting Averages | 34.33 | 21.87 | 21.93 | 42.85 |
| Strike Rate | 62.80 | 64.51 | 106.55 | 61.40 |
| Balls Bowled | 12 | 139 | 4 | 87 |
| Wickets | - | 3 | 1 | - |
| Bowling Averages | - | 30.33 | 4.00 | – |
| 5-Wickets Haul | - | - | - | - |
| Best Bowling | - | 1/1 | 1/4 | – |
| Catches/Stumps | - | 18/– | 16/– | 15/– |
| ICC Batting Rankings | - | Â 90 | 45 | - |
| ICC Bowling Rankings | - | - | - | - |
Asghar Afghan as Captain
| Matches Format | Matches | Won | Lost | Drawn | Tied | No result | Win % |
| Test | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | Â 50 % |
| ODI | 56 | 31 | 21 | 1 | 1 | - | 55 % |
| T20 | 46 | 37 | 9 | - | - | - | 80 % |
Asghar Afghan Profile
| Full Name | Mohammad Asghar Afghan |
| Date of Birth | 22 February 1987 Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Current Age | 32 |
| Height | 180 cm |
| Nickname | Asghar Salamkhail, Asghar Stanikzai |
| T-Shirt No. | 44 |
| Playing Roll | Middle-order batsman |
| Batting Style | Right-handed |
| Bowling Style | Right-arm medium-fast |
| Test Debut | 14 June 2018 v India (cap 2) |
| ODI Debut | 19 April 2009 v Scotland (cap 1) |
| T20 Debut | 1 February 2010 v Ireland (cap 1) |
| Last Test | 15 March 2019 v Ireland |
| Last ODI | 10 March 2019 v Ireland |
| Last T20 | 24 February 2019 v Ireland |
| @asgharafghan | |
| Instagram | @sghar_stanikzai |
| Major Teams | Afghanistan, Amo Region |