Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Atif Mashal on Thursday has revealed that senior Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has given a green signal to coach Afghan national team soon after his retirement.
“Younis [Khan] has agreed to coach the Afghan cricket team and the board is currently finalising the contract,” Mashal was quoted as saying by Dawn.
The 39-year-old middle-order batsman Younis, who is all set to retire from international cricket after the third and final Test at Windsor Park in Dominica will join the war-torn country’s national team to give a test to his coaching skill.
Earlier, the Afghan side was mentored by current Pakistan Cricket Board’s national chief selector and former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-Ul-Haq followed by former wicket-keeper batsman Rashid Latif.
Last year, Inzamam stepped down as the chief coach of Afghan team to become the chief selector of PCB.
The right-handed batsman has been a prolific run-scorer for Pakistan in Test format before reaching the landmark of 10,000 Test runs on April 23 against the West Indies while playing his 16th Test match.
Interestingly, Younis Khan, who led Pakistan in 2009 Twenty20 World Cup win in England, also became first Pakistani cricketer to march past 10,000-run landmark in his career which has further witnessed highs and lows.
Rising to the occasion, the man to save Pakistan cricket from crisis Younis has the fifth best average in his Test career, who have scored 8000 runs at least.
The list also includes Little Master Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Gary Sobers, South African veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis followed by Kumar Sangakkara, who averaged above than Mardan-born star.
After scoring significant 218 runs at the Oval against England, Younis shared the record of six centuries with former Pakistan stalwart Javed Miandad.
Before the overnight score of 169 for two at stumps on the day, one of the series decider as rain marred the final session, Jason Holder-led West Indies side gave a Guard of Honour to Younis when he went to bat in his second last innings.
So far Younis has scored 10,046 runs in 211 innings off 117 Tests at the average of 52.32 which further included 34 hundreds and 33 half-centuries.