Shapoor Zadran

There is an aggression inscribed on the face of Shapoor Zadran when his six feet tall body charges in from almost the boundary ropes and deliver the ball. His run-up is intimidating and so is his bowling. He is a left-arm pacer who bowls a heavy ball and hits the pitch hard. He was born in Afghanistan but when war engulfed the region, he was forced to move to Peshawar in Pakistan. He came back to Afghanistan and then his journey as a professional cricketer started.

His ODI debut was a memorable one as he returned with stellar figures of 4-24 in his allotted quota of 10 overs against the Netherlands in 2009. Since then, he has been a constant member of the Afghanistan fast bowling department.

He was the only bowler from Afghanistan to reach the double-digit wickets mark in the 2015 World Cup. But one of his stand-out moment as a cricketer would be the 2010 T20 WC encounter between Afghanistan and India when he got the better of both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

After playing international cricket for nearly a decade Shapoor will get the opportunity to become a Test cricketer when Afghanistan will lock horns with India at M.Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. He would surely want to replicate his ODI debut in Test too and create an impact in one of the most anticipated matches in the history of Afghanistan cricket.

By Varun Dikshit