AGENCIES, KABUL: Nawroz Mangal, under whose leadership Afghanistan secured ODI status in the 2009 World Cup Qualifiers and then qualified for the 2010 World T20, has retired from international cricket to take up a role as the national chief selector.
Mangal, 32, played 49 ODI and 30 T20Is for Afghanistan, making 1139 runs and 454 runs respectively. When Afghanistan played their first international against Oman 13 years ago, Mangal was a part of the XI.
He now finishes as one of five Afghanistan players to have passed 1000 runs in ODI cricket. He struck two ODI hundreds; the first of which - 112 not out off 96 balls while opening the batting - guided the team to a seven-wicket win in the ICC World Cricket League Championship in 2012-13.
Mangal, who took over as captain in 2007, handed the reins to Mohammad Nabi in November 2010 but remained a fixture in the team’s line-up, gaining a second chance at leading the team before once again giving up the role to Nabi in March 2013 in order to focus on his own batting. Two years later, he hit a chanceless half-century against Papua New Guinea to seal Afghanistan’s spot in the World T20 in India in 2016.