Younis Khan to join Afghanistan team as mentor for 2025 Champions Trophy: Sources

New Delhi, Jan 8 Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan will join Afghanistan as their mentor for 2025 Champions Trophy, said sources in the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Wednesday.

Younis previously worked as Afghanistan’s batting coach on a short-term contract in 2022.

“It’s confirmed that Younis will be with the Afghanistan team as their mentor for the 2025 Champions Trophy. He will join the Afghanistan team in their preparation and conditioning camp before the event begins in Pakistan and will accompany the team till the end of the Champions Trophy,” sources in the ACB further said to IANS.

Younis retired from international cricket in 2017, after scoring 10,099 runs in 118 Tests, including a career-best score of 313. The former right-handed batter amassed 7249 runs in 246 ODIs for Pakistan at an average of 31.24, including seven centuries and 48 fifties. He also captained Pakistan to its maiden Men’s T20 World Cup triumph in 2009 in England.

In his coaching career, Younis worked with the Pakistan senior men’s team as their batting coach but resigned after just six months in mid-2021. In franchise cricket, Younis had coaching stints with Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and as head coach of the Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 League.

The 2025 Champions Trophy, to be held in Pakistan and Dubai from February 19 to March 9, will be the first time that Afghanistan will play in the eight-team tournament. They are placed in Group B alongside Australia, South Africa, and England, while Group A comprises of Pakistan, India, New Zealand, and Bangladesh.

An India-based coach, who previously worked in the Afghanistan set-up, told IANS that appointing Younis as their mentor for the 2025 Champions Trophy is a continuation of the team’s unique tendency of hiring a mentor or consultant from the countries where they go to play their ICC tournaments.

The previous ICC tournaments are a proof of the policy paying off handsomely for Afghanistan so far. In 2023, they roped in former India batter Ajay Jadeja as their mentor for the ODI World Cup, where they impressed everyone with their style of play and securing four wins in their league stage, including getting a stunning victory over defending champions England in New Delhi.

In the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup, played in the USA and the West Indies, they brought legendary seam-bowling all-rounder Dwayne Bravo as their bowling consultant. That move brought them rich dividends as Afghanistan beat New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh to enter the semi-finals for the first time.

It will be fascinating to see if Younis’s involvement in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy produces the same positive results for Afghanistan, a team whose success and rise in international cricket has made for a heartwarming watch.