Mohammad Nabi

Mohammad Nabi Eisakhil (born 1 January 1985) is an Afghan cricketer and former captain of the Afghanistan national cricket team.

Nabi is an attacking batting all-rounder, playing as a right-handed batsman and off-break bowler.

He started playing cricket in Peshawar at the age of 10, and his family moved back to Afghanistan in 2000, where he began playing cricket with Mohammad Shahzad, Asghar Afghan and Shapoor Zadran, all of whom would later become important members of the Afghan national team.

Nabi played his first competitive match in 2003 for an Afghanistan team against the Rahim Yar Khan Cricket Association.

Afghanistan's team was poor, but Nabi top-scored for the team with 61 runs.

During this time Afghanistan didn't have their own cricket gear and had to rely on buying it from Pakistan and India.

In 2006, Nabi played for Afghanistan in a tour match against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Mumbai, India.

He top-scored for Afghanistan with 116 in a big win, and was noticed by former English Test captain Mike Gatting.

Nabi was then included in the MCC's Young Cricketers programme in England.

While with the MCC Nabi made his first-class debut in a tour match against Sri Lanka A in 2007, top-scoring for his team in the first innings with 43 runs.

Following this he played domestic cricket in Pakistan for Pakistan Customs.

He subsequently made his List A debut for Pakistan Customs against National Bank of Pakistan on 20 March 2008 during the 2007/08 ABN-AMRO Cup.

Mohammad was part of Afghanistan's "staggering" rise from Division Five of the World Cricket League to One Day International status.

This began in the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Division Five, which Afghanistan won.

Nabi played in all seven of Afghanistan's matches for the tournament, scoring 108 runs and taking 10 wickets, the second-most for Afghanistan in each.

This success was followed by the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Division Four, which Afghanistan also won.

Nabi was named the man of the tournament, having taken 14 wickets at an average of 5.35 and scored 154 runs at an average of 25.66.

He played a major role in Afghanistan's rise to the top level of international cricket, playing in both their first One Day International in April 2009 and their first Test match in June 2018.

Nabi was also in Afghanistan's team for the 2009 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, which they won to progress to the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

Nabi played his first first-class match for Afghanistan in the 2009–10 ICC Intercontinental Cup against a Zimbabwe XI, scoring a century and taking 3/90 in the first innings.

He was also part of Afghanistan's first T20I team which played against Ireland on 1 February 2010 and became the fifth cap of Afghanistan national team in Twenty20 Internationals.

Nabi was also part of Afghanistan's first T20 World Cup team which played the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

He continued to be an important part of Afghanistan's team in the Intercontinental Cup, and also played a crucial role for the team in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, through which Afghanistan qualified for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

Having been a consistent performer for Afghanistan and vice-captain under Nawroz Mangal's captaincy, when Mangal was removed from the captaincy ahead of the 2010 Asian Games, Nabi was appointed Afghanistan'a captain.

Afghanistan.

Afghanistan finished the Asian Games runners-up after losing the final to Bangladesh, and Nabi didn't remain captain after the games.

Though Afghanistan did not qualify for the 2011 Cricket World Cup, they did achieve One Day International (ODI) status, and their final match of the tournament, the fifth-place play-off against Scotland, was the country's first ever ODI.

Nabi scored 58 to get his maiden ODI half-century on his ODI debut, a match which Afghanistan won.

He was named player of the match.

In March 2013, Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced that Nabi would lead the national side in the ICC Intercontinental Cup in the UAE, after Nawroz Mangal was stripped of the captaincy following his dismal show in the limited-over series in Pakistan the previous month.

He captained the side during their appearances in the 2014 Asia Cup and the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Nabi has also played in numerous Twenty20 franchise tournaments and was the first player from Afghanistan to be selected in the Indian Premier League player auction.

Under his captaincy, Afghanistan went to the 2014 Asia Cup, their first ever major international ODI tournament.

During the tournament they defeated Bangladesh in just their fourth match against a Test nation.

Nabi remained captain through the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2015 Cricket World Cup, but due to poor form and Afghanistan only winning one match in the World Cup, he resigned as captain in April 2015.

Nabi's poor form continued after resigning the captaincy until Afghanistan's bilateral ODI series against Zimbabwe.

During the series, Afghanistan's new coach Inzamam-ul-Haq promoted Nabi up the batting order from number 6 to number 3 and his batting improved dramatically, scoring his maiden ODI century and 223 runs during the series to be named the player of the series.

In September 2019, Nabi retired from Test cricket with the stated aim to prolong his limited overs cricket career.

In August 2020, Nabi was inducted as a member of the Afghanistan Cricket Board.

Nabi was born in Logar Province in Afghanistan to an Isa Khel Niazai Pashtun family, but his family moved to Peshawar in Pakistan, fleeing from the Soviet–Afghan War.