Afghanistan's Mohammad Shahzaad goes past Virat Kohli in T20s

Cricket in Afghanistan became popular in the 1990s when Afghani refugees who returned from Pakistan had learned the game.

In the year 1995, cricket's national governing body, Afghanistan Cricket Board, was formed with its headquarters in Kabul.

Mostly, local cricket was played in Afghanistan as it was not a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) until 2003.

Afghanistan earned the ODI status in the year 2011, and played their first ODI match against Scotland. They had won the match by 89 runs.

They also went on to win the Asian Cricket Council T20 Cup four times and in 2015 earned their place in the top 10 of the ICC ODI rankings.

Afghanistan also received funds from ICC for development of cricket.

History was made when two players from Afghanistan were picked up by the Indian Premier League team Sunrisers Hyderabad at the 2017 IPL Auction in Bangalore.

Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player to be picked by the team for Rs. 30 lakh.

His team-mate, 18-year old leg spinner Rashid Khan fetched an amount of Rs. 4 crore.

Afghanistan cricket team won their tenth consecutive T20 international match to record the longest winning streak, going past England and Ireland who have eight wins each to their names. They defeated Ireland in their latest match.

Afghanistan's winning streak began last year when they defeated West Indies in the World T20 and had gone on to defeat UAE, Ireland and Oman since then.

Afghanistan batsman Mohammad Shahzaad went past Kohli's record to become the fourth highest run-getter in T20 internationals.

Shahzaad is now on the fourth place with 1779 runs from 58 matches, 70 runs ahead of Kohli. He is just 27 runs short from the third-placed Martin Guptill of New Zealand.

The 29-year old has scored one century and 12 half-centuries at an average of 32.34.