Hazratullah Zazai

Hazratullah Zazai, in his brief career, is known for one stupendous innings - a 162 off 62 balls, the highest in a T20I, in Dehradun in February 2019 against Ireland. This was an innings of such extraordinary carnage, that it made him a household name in the cricketing fraternity overnight. In a country known for its spinners, and more spinners, Zazai was a welcome addition to the batting line-up so that the exemplary spinners had larger targets to defend.

He set the world stage alight when he smashed six sixes in an over in the Afghanistan Premier League, playing for Kabul Zwanan against Balkh Legends in Sharjah. A broad, bulky southpaw, Zazai has a Hayden-esque presence at the wicket, and showed signs of a precocious prodigy as a teenager in a T20I series against Ireland, culminating in a fiery 82 to seal the series. He had already made an identity for himself with a 44-ball hundred in the APL, but the six sixes record, paired with Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball fifty record (both in the same game, 12 years apart) certainly sent his stock soaring into orbit.

In February 2019, he put the EA Cricket '07 players to shame, as he smoked a 62-ball 162* against Ireland in the third T20I at Dehradun. He smoked 16 sixes to carry Afghanistan to a massive total of 278 - also a world record. The sample space is still too small to draw a judgement, but Zazai is a likely contender for the upcoming World Cup in England, given that he could give Shahzad company at the top of the order to make for a formidable opening pair going forward.

What to expect in the 2019 WC?

An explosive left-hander, Zazai has all the traits of being the massive weapon that Afghanistan would want to unleash on their opponents. His partnership with Mohammad Shahzad will be another crucial factor that will decide their team's fate. The burly southpaw has an arc, an area which the bowlers would want to stay away from. Anything in his radar will disappear. Hardly someone who has any inhibitions, he might well have to curtail his instincts a bit if the new ball moves a bit. But if the English wickets are flat then this man can plunder runs at the pace of knots!

Relatively, new to the international scene and that might add to his advantage as he won't have any baggage of failures. His success or failure might be directly be proportional to Afghanistan's report card in the tournament.

Written by Rishi Roy and Kumar Abhisekh Das