Former Afghanistan skipper Nawroz Mangal retires from international cricket

32-year-old former Afghanistan skipper Nowroz Mangal has announced his retirement from international cricket. While this certainly comes as a shock to most of the cricketing world, it seems quite clear that Mangal has rescinded the role as Afghan player to be the Chairman of selectors.

Nawroz was the first skipper of the Afghanistan Cricket team when they first made their way out to the international arena. However, in spite of the fact that they were not exactly successful at the time, the fact of the matter remains that he is one of the pioneers with a vision for Afghanistan cricket.

Mohammad Nabi took over as skipper of Afghanistan shortly after Mangal was dropped and has been quite successful in recent times. Stanikzai was famously the skipper who guided the Afghans through to the round of 10 in the World T20 earlier in 2016, a tournament that was viewed as a massive success for the newest team from Asia.

In the World T20, Afghanistan overcame the odds by beating the likes of Ireland and Scotland, two supremely strong sides to make it through. Their final encounter saw them pull off perhaps the biggest shock in 2016 wherein they defeated the eventual champions West Indies in the group stages.

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This win also ensured that one and all would take the Afghans as a serious world class commodity in recent times. At the moment, they have moved from strength to strength and have also appointed former Indian cricketer Lalchand Rajput as their coach. Rajput was the interim coach of the Indian cricket team that lifted the inaugural edition of the World T20 in South Africa in 2007.

Nawroz Mangal is the second Associate Nation player to hang up his boots in recent times. Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen had called it quits a few months previously citing lack of cricket for the same and also took the executive decision to pursue a different career elsewhere.