Najibullah Zadran

A left-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off-break, Najibullah Zadran represented Afghanistan Under-19s in the 2011 Under-19 World Cup Qualifier in Ireland. He made his T20 debut in the Faysal Bank T20 Cup against Rawalpindi Rams for the Afghan Cheetahs. In the tournament, he scored 58 runs in his three appearances, at an average of 29 with a highest score of 51 not out.

Najibullah made his ODI debut against Ireland in July 2012 and scored 23 runs in his first game. His T20I debut came against India in September 2012 in the T20 World Cup.

Najibullah has been a good servant of the game for Afghanistan. Even though, he has failed to convert starts into big scores, Najibullah's current form is good. Courtesy of his exploits, Najib as he is fondly known among his team-mates was included in the Afghanistan squad for the ICC cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand.

He failed to replicate his successful run at the mega event scoring a modest 123 runs in 6 matches at an average of 24.60. The hard-hitting batsman was subsequently dropped from the national side.

Najibullah went back to First-Class cricket and honed his skills. In 2016, he slammed a 35-ball 60 in his comeback game against UAE which helped Afghanistan qualify for the main draw of the Asia Cup in Bangladesh.

It was no looking back for him since then as he became one of the mainstays of Afghanistan's batting. In 2017, he was announced the skipper of Afghanistan A for the tri-series in the rainbow nation involving India and hosts South Africa.

He lived up to his billing with a couple of fifties. Najibullah was included in the BPL draft for 2017 and Chittagong Vikings signed him up.

By Sriram AS