He is now the first captain in men’s international cricket history to lead a team before turning 18. Zak Vukusic still has nearly two months to go before his 18th birthday, yet he has already experienced captaining his national side. The Croatian all-rounder’s name is now etched in the record books.
Since the ICC began granting international status to all T20 matches between member nations, the game has seen plenty of remarkable moments and records. One of those came on Thursday when Vukusic made his captaincy debut for Croatia against Cyprus at the age of 17 years and 311 days.
He broke the previous youngest captain record held by France’s Noman Amjad, who first led his side in July 2022 against the Czech Republic at 18 years and 24 days.
In men’s ODIs and Tests, the youngest-ever captain in both formats remains Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan. He first captained in ODIs against Scotland in 2018 at 19 years and 165 days, then made his Test captaincy debut in Chattogram against Bangladesh in 2019 at 20 years and 350 days.
On the day Vukusic set his record, Croatia played two matches against Cyprus but lost both. In his first outing as captain, he took 1 wicket for 41 runs and scored 43 off 32 balls. In the second, he scored 23 off 19 deliveries and claimed 2 wickets with the ball.
Vukusic recently joined the Somerset County Cricket Academy, marking another big step in his promising career.
