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Former Sri Lanka cricketer Avishka Gunawardene has been appointed batting coach of Afghanistan for the upcoming Pakistan ODI series, confirmed by the Afghanistan Cricket Board.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced this on Tuesday [August 17] via Twitter.

"Former @OfficialSLC batsman and coach, Avishka Gunawardene has been appointed as Afghanistan National Team's batting coach," the Afghanistan board tweeted.

ICC cleared Gunawardene of two corruption charges earlier in May, which allowed him to take part in cricket-related activities.

Gunawardene represented Sri Lanka in 6 Tests and 61 ODIs, he scored only 181 runs in Test cricket, while he made 1708 runs in the ODI format with a century.

Taliban fighters who took over Afghanistan on Monday had announced that cricket can continue as it was before.

“Taliban love cricket and they are supporting their team. Our ODI series against Pakistan will go as per schedule in Sri Lanka. After two days’ gap due to the current situation in the country, the training camp of the national team will resume tomorrow,” ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari said.