
By BY THE NEW YORK TIMES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31cJhCR
"I will retire from all international cricket after the game against Namibia," the 33-year-old said in Pashto in a video message on Facebook.
"I want more and more youngsters to get the opportunity to play for Afghanistan. Therefore, it's expected that tomorrow will be my last international match and afterwards I will resign."
Asghar skippered Afghanistan over all three formats of cricket for six years, before being acrimoniously sacked two weeks before the start of the 2019 World Cup in England.
He eventually won back the captaincy but was axed again in June this year after being blamed for the team's poor form in a Test series in Zimbabwe.
Asghar played six Tests, 114 one-day internationals and 74 Twenty20 internationals in a career spread over 12 years.
He scored 440 runs in Tests with one hundred while his tally in ODIs was 2,424 with a century and 12 half-centuries.
At the ongoing World Cup, Asghar scored 10 runs in the defeat against Pakistan in Dubai on Friday.
"@ACBofficials welcomes and respects his decision, expresses gratitude for his services to the country," tweeted the Afghanistan Cricket Board.
"It will take a lot of hard work for young Afghan cricketers to fill his shoes."
It will be an interesting battle, considering both players are young, extremely good at what they do, and will most likely give fans a chance to witness a contest between them.
Babar Azam and Rashid Khan are both also in good form, with the former scoring an impressive half-century in the first match against India while the latter picked up four important wickets against Scotland.
The Pakistani skipper is ranked at number 2 in the ICC T20 rankings while Rashid Khan is ranked at the number 3 spot in the bowlers' rankings.