Former international cricketer of Bangladesh national team and former head coach of Bangla Tigers Aftab Ahmed have been appointed once again as the head coach of Bangla Tigers for the upcoming season of Abu Dhabi T10 Cricket League 2022-23 held in November 2022 as per tentative schedule. He is replaced by the former coach Stuart Law.
After signing the contract, the newly appointed head coach Aftab Ahmed said – I felt like returning back to my own home. I’ve enjoyed our very first T10 league mission and I am eagerly waiting to work with some great players and outstanding team management. In my first mission as the coach, Bangla Tigers concluded the tournament as 2nd runner up and this year our target is to conquer the championship title.
Aftab came into the national radar following a superb 79 against South Africa in the 2002 U-19 WC. In the following year he was pitched into the Test squad to face England, despite having failed to impress in two earlier warm-up matches but showed flashes of brilliance later and brought some outstanding victories for the Bangladesh National Team.
His first major success with the bat came in one of the historical moments of Bangladesh cricket. In the 100th ODI match of Bangladesh, Ahmed scored his maiden fifty which later proved as vital as Bangladesh narrowly beat India by 14 runs in that match.
He did have his moments though playing crucial hands as Bangladesh surprised Australia and Sri Lanka. He also finished off the historic one-day win over Australia at Cardiff, smashing Jason Gillespie for four and six to seal victory.
He had his moments in the shortest format of the game with his unbeaten 62 assists as Bangladesh stunned West Indies in the inaugural T20 WC. An enthralling display of power hitting by Mohammad Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed helped Bangladesh stroll to a six-wicket win against West Indies in Johannesburg.
He made an important knock of 81 not out against Zimbabwe to clinch the series at the last game as it hanged 2–2 before the decider. Bangladesh came back from 2–0 down and won the series to become only the second team to win a five match series after losing the first two games.
His initial bowling took many by surprise as he stunned New Zealand with figures of 5/31. It was the first time he had bowled in his ODI career.
In August 2014, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after the 2014/15 domestic season to focus on coaching.
Bangla tigers were ranked as 3rd in its very 1st season 2019 (3rd Season of the tournament) under his coaching.