January 8th 2025.
Sources within the Afghanistan Cricket Board have announced that former Pakistan captain Younis Khan will be joining the Afghanistan team as their mentor for the 2025 Champions Trophy. This comes after Younis previously served as the team's batting coach on a short-term contract in 2022.
According to sources, Younis will be with the team during their preparation and conditioning camp before the event in Pakistan, and will stay with them until the end of the Champions Trophy. This move is seen as a strategic decision to help the Afghan players improve their skills and tactics, with Younis's wealth of experience and knowledge being a valuable asset.
Younis retired from international cricket in 2017, leaving behind a remarkable record of 10,099 runs in 118 Tests, including a career-best score of 313. His impressive stats also include 7249 runs in 246 ODIs for Pakistan, with seven centuries and 48 fifties to his name. He even led Pakistan to their first Men's T20 World Cup victory in 2009.
During his coaching career, Younis has worked with the Pakistan senior men's team as their batting coach, but resigned after only six months in mid-2021. He has also had coaching stints with Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League and as the head coach of the Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 League.
The 2025 Champions Trophy, set to take place in Pakistan and Dubai from February 19 to March 9, will be a historic event for Afghanistan as it will be their first time competing in the eight-team tournament. They have been placed in Group B alongside Australia, South Africa, and England, while Group A consists of Pakistan, India, New Zealand, and Bangladesh.
A coach based in India, who previously worked with the Afghanistan team, stated that appointing Younis as their mentor for the 2025 Champions Trophy follows the team's unique trend of hiring mentors or consultants from the countries they go to play in ICC tournaments. This approach has proven to be successful for Afghanistan in the past.
In 2023, they brought in former Indian batter Ajay Jadeja as their mentor for the ODI World Cup, where they impressed everyone with their style of play and secured four wins in the league stage, including a stunning victory over defending champions England in New Delhi. Similarly, in the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, played in the USA and the West Indies, they had legendary seam-bowling all-rounder Dwayne Bravo as their bowling consultant, which led to their first semi-final appearance.
It will be intriguing to see if Younis's involvement in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will yield the same positive results for Afghanistan, a team whose success and rise in international cricket has been a heartwarming journey to witness.
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