Newly appointed Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan today became the youngest ever Test skipper when he showed up for the toss before the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram on Thursday. At 20 years and 350 days old, Rashid beat the previous record held by former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu by a mere 8 days. Taibu was 7 days short of his 21st birthday when he led his side against Sri Lanka in Harare on May 6, 2004.
India’s Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi rounds up the top-3 in this regard, having made his captaincy debut against West Indies at the age of 21 years and 77 days on March 23, 1962.
Earlier today against Bangladesh, Rashid decided to bat first after winning the toss.
It is only Afghanistan’s third scheduled five-day match since getting Test status last year. They conceded an innings and 262-run defeat to India in their inaugural Test before winning against Ireland by seven wickets.
Bangladesh chose to field an all spin-attack, going with its recent trend in a home Test. The four-pronged spin attack took all 40 wickets against West Indies to help the side sweep the two-match Test series when Bangladesh last time played at home.
Regular opener Tamim Iqbal, the highest scorer for Bangladesh in Test matches, is not playing in the series after being granted a break from cricket due to personal reasons.
Afghanistan also fielded a spin-heavy attack with captain Rashid Khan forming a spin-quartet with Mohammad Nabi, Qais Ahmed and Zahir Khan.
Bangladesh lost its last two test matches to New Zealand, before the third and last match of the series was called off following a terrorist attack at two mosques in Christchurch.
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