Afghanistan Hire Younis Khan as Team Mentor: The first match of Champions Trophy 2025 is to be played on 19 February. Afghanistan’s first match in this tournament is against South Africa on 21 February. About 43 days before this, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has taken a big step. Actually, Afghanistan has appointed former Pakistan captain and veteran batsman Younis Khan as a mentor. The Afghanistan board has announced that Younis will join the team before this big tournament to be held in Pakistan.
Younis Khan will prepare the team for the Champions Trophy 2025 in the conditioning camp starting from February 19 in Karachi and will remain with the team till the end of the tournament. Younus has previously worked with the Afghanistan team in 2022 also. At that time he coached an extended team of 25 players in a 15-day training camp in Abu Dhabi. This time his role will be very important, because Afghanistan has performed brilliantly in the last two ICC tournaments.
ACB assigns Younas Khan as Mentor for CT25
The Afghanistan Cricket Board has appointed former Pakistan’s batsman Younas Khan as the mentor of the Afghanistan National team for the Champions Trophy 2025, starting on February 19 in Pakistan. Younas Khan will accompany the team… pic.twitter.com/6yasEXK8Us
— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) January 8, 2025
Host country mentor strategy
This is the third time when ACB has appointed an experienced player from the host country as the mentor of the team. Ajay Jadeja was made the team’s mentor in the ODI World Cup 2023, while Dwayne Bravo supported the team as a bowling consultant in the T20 World Cup 2024. Afghanistan’s performance in both these tournaments was excellent. In the ODI World Cup, it achieved sixth place by defeating teams like England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while in the T20 World Cup, the team reached the semi-finals for the first time.
ACB Chief Executive Naseeb Khan said, “For this mega tournament to be held in Pakistan, we have selected an experienced player from the host country as a mentor. Younis’s experience will greatly benefit the team. We have planned the 2023 and 2024 tournaments. We’ve seen good results with host country mentors in the past, and we hope this strategy will work this time too.”
Afghanistan is in Group B of the Champions Trophy 2025 along with Australia, England and South Africa. All the matches of the tournament will be played in Pakistan, while the matches related to India will be held in Dubai.
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