Afghanistan sack their captain ahead of Australia Test

Afghanistan will have a new captain for their historic Test against Australia this summer after Asghar Afghan was axed and replaced by veteran batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi.

Afghan, in his second stint as captain of the national side, has been removed as skipper of both the Test and ODI teams, with officials pointing to their loss to Zimbabwe in March as the main reason for his exit.

"The decision to remove Asghar Afghan from captaincy was taken based on an investigation conducted by ACB's Investigative committee," an ACB media release stated.

"It concluded that some of Afghan's decisions as the captain of the team resulted in Afghanistan's loss to Zimbabwe in the first Test of the series between both sides in Abu Dhabi in March."

Afghanistan lost the first of two Tests against Zimbabwe in just two days before Afghan and Shahidi shared a 307-run partnership in the second Test to secure a series-levelling win.

They will face Australia in a Test match for the first time in November at Blundstone Arena in Hobart.

A captaincy shake-up is not unusual for the Afghanistan national side. Afghan was removed as ODI captain just months before the 2019 World Cup and replaced by Gulbadin Naib, who himself was sacked and replaced by Rashid Khan after they failed to win a game at the showpiece event. By the end of that year, Afghan had been re-instated as skipper.

Shahidi will become Afghanistan's third Test skipper after Afghan and Rashid led them in their six Tests to date.

Shahidi will also take the ODI leadership from Afghan. Rahmat Shah will be Shahidi's deputy in both formats.

A decision on the team's T20 skipper for this year's World Cup is yet to be made, although the board confirmed that Rashid will be the vice-captain of the T20 side.

Afghan took over the captaincy in 2015 and, in two separate stints as skipper, led his county in four Tests, 58 ODIs and 49 T20s.