Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan captain, batsman and wicket-keeper, has been appointed by the Afghanistan cricket board as the national team batting coach. He will finalise the agreement when he travels to Kabul on the 15th June. Of course, Kabir Khan, who has done an excellent job, will stay as the head coach.
The batting was shown up in the World T20 so a batting coach was a necessary step. It would have been ideal, however, for a coach to be recruited from Australia, England or South Africa. There was two major obstacles to this though: a coach from that part of the world would have cost considerably more, and, as the majority of the team struggle with English, communcation could have been a problem.
So, does Latif have a record to show he’s a batter the Afghans can learn from? Well, in short, no. He averaged a paltry 28.77 from 37 matches. In ODI’s, his record was even worse: averaging 19.42 from a sizable 166 matches. To be fair to Latif, he batted down the order most of his career; nevertheless, his stats doesn’t show him to be a top-class batsmen.
I think we can gather that this appointment was more to do with availability and cost, rather than batting expertise. Latif, though, will have to be given time to improve the fragile batting of the Afghanistan team.
Good to see that they have appointed a batting coach of international experience. STM you are right that he might not be the best person to learn batting from but as you mentioned it was probably due to availability and cost that he was chosen. Hope he does not pass any of his team infighting skills to the emerging team. He was known more for his non-compatibility with other team members during his playing years and hope that Afghanistan players does not develop that trait. It is unity which is needed for a strong teamwork and especially for a emerging team. Rest it is a positive step and hope the Afghanistan cricket team improves further.