In the past two years, Afghanistan has been a standout country in the field of cricket. The Afghanistan cricket team has qualified for the Round of 4 in the 2024 T20 World Cup. A year ago in the 2023 ODI World Cup, they managed to knock out the reigning champions, England and the previous World Champions, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Afghanistan would have made it to the semi finals had it not been for a once in a lifetime v 2 Deuce by Glenn Maxwell who played against the afghans at the Wankede stadium Mumbai.
Gradually with the spin attacks like Rashid KhanMujeeb-Ur-Rahman and Noor Ahmed batter Rahmanullah GurbazIbrahim Zadran, Hashmathullah Shahid, Najibullah Zadran Akhmat have steered the wheels. Of late the two pace bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen ul haq to have changed the course of the game in favor of Afghanistan. Last but not least, exited the great of the Afghan cricket lately Mohammad Nabi that swam against the current – from the depths of defeatist sentiment, to the current positive result.
Their success has motivated a new breed of Afghan cricket who are eager to take responsibility and seek further success for their country.
Here are some of the promising names who will take Afghan cricket forward…
Bashir Shah (a premier batsman)
Being a remaining upright top order batsman, it is with no surprise to learn that average 59.16 on the three hundreds is a first class average. Afghan captain in both ODI and Test matches’s, Hashmatullah Shahidi praised Shah and had optimistic expectations from him. In first class cricket, he 24 years 251 days is outranked only by Javad Miandad in scoring 3 centuries at the age of 18 years and 251 days. Shah made his 1,000th run in 11th over of first class cricket which is less than Australian Bill Ponsford.
Riaz Hassan (batsman in the top order)
It was Riaz Hassan who was the first batsman and was appreciated for his valuable performance by Afghanistan. The 22 year old has so far played 5 ODIs and similar to Baheer Shah has more than 50 average (56.31) in franchise cricket. Recently, India’s spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin Sharing his enjoyment about Shah and Hassan says that they are very important for the development of the game of cricket in Afghanistan. Ashwin, in fact, termed the two younger batsmen of Afghanistan as Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif whose contributions to Indian cricket were very much useful in early 2000.
Qais Ahmed (leg-spinner)
Leg spinner Qais Ahmed is one of the few sportsmen able to gain a workable reputation in franchise-based T20 leagues having been nurtured on a land of wrist spinners like Afghanistan. The 24-year-old has already played for the Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League BBL. He is a regular for St. Lucia Stars, Barbados Royals, Guyana Amazon Warriors and Jamaica Tallawahs in Caribbean Premier League. Along with his accolades in the shortest format, Ghaith has also been quite successful in longer formats of the game. In just 13 first-class games, he took 70 wickets at an average of 21.44 with a strike rate of 37.1 and conceding 21.4 runs.
Zahir Khan (left arm wrist spinner)
It is complicated one because Zahir is Chinese and such pitchers are always interesting to few. The 25-year-old has taken the field in several seasons for Melbourne Stars. In fact, the young cricketer linked up with Indian Premier League franchisee Rajasthan Royals in the year 2018 but was ruled out of the season because of an injury. Zahir captivated one and all while portraying the Afghan U-19 team. Zahir has played 5 Test matches has taken 11 wickets but has had a very good first class career. He took 106 wicket at an average of 22.66 and a strike rate of 32.4 in 22 matches.
Naveed Zadran (fast bowler)
Besides the 19-year-old, Naveed Zadran was at first a member of the Afghan Test squad for the solitary test against New Zealand but was subsequently cut from the team with a side strain. This was done by the Afghanistan team management in the hope his condition will improve ahead of the ODI series versus UAE in South Africa. Navid is medium pace right hand fast bowler who is able to reverse too. He played two test matches and has taken 9 wickets with a bowling average of 22.5 and 35.5 as the strike rate. In 10 first-class matches, he returned with 46 wickets with a bowling average of 24.50, and strike rate of 36.8. At a height of just above 6 ft, navid is the leading wicket taker of Afghanistan on spin conducive tracks in his first tier season of 2023.
