Afghan cricketer
Ibrahim Zadran (Pashto: ابراهیم ځدراڼ; born 12 December 2001) is an Afghan cricketer. He made his Test match debut for the Afghanistan cricket team in September 2019.[2]
Domestic career
He made his List A debut for Mis Ainak Region in the 2017 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament on 11 August 2017.[3] He made his Twenty20 debut for Mis Ainak Knights in the 2017 Shpageeza Cricket League on 12 September 2017.[4]
In September 2018, he was named in Nangarhar's squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament.[5]
In 2021, Ibrahim played for Boyne Hill in Berkshire. He played as an opener and scored 479 runs in 15 matches.[6]
International career
In December 2017, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.[7] He was the leading run-scorer for Afghanistan in the tournament, with 186 runs.[8]
In December 2018, he was named in Afghanistan's under-23 team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.[9]
In August 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's Test squad for their one-off match against Bangladesh.[10][11] He made his Test debut, in the one-off match against Bangladesh, on 5 September 2019.[12] The following month, he was named in Afghanistan's squads for their series against the West Indies.[13] He made his One Day International (ODI) debut, against the West Indies, on 11 November 2019.[14] He made his T20I debut for Afghanistan, also against the West Indies, on 14 November 2019.[15]
In December 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.[16] He was the leading run-scorer for Afghanistan in the tournament, with 240 runs in five matches.[17] In June 2022, in the second match against Zimbabwe, Zadran scored his first century in ODI cricket, with an unbeaten 120 runs.[18] In November 2022, he scored his second ODI century (106), against Sri Lanka in Pallekelle.[19] He won the player of the match award. In the third match of the same series, he smashed 162 runs, breaking the record for highest score by a player from his country in this format.[20] He ended the series with 278 runs at an average of 92.66, and won the player of the series award.[21]
Six months later, in June 2023, he made 98 against Sri Lanka in the first match of the 2023 series, in Hambantota, winning the player of the match award.[22] In four innings in Sri Lanka, he has scored 106, 10, 162 and 98.
He made his World Cup debut on 7 October 2023 against Bangladesh in India in the 2023 Cricket World Cup. He scored 22 runs off 24 balls in a losing cause.[23] He played a match-winning knock against Pakistan, scoring 87 runs off 113 balls.[24] He was declared payer of the match, which he dedicated to the Afghan refugees.[25]
Zadran made the highest ever score by an Afghan player in the ICC World Cup on 7 November 2023 against Australia at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai by scoring 129 runs not out from 147 balls. This was Afghanistan's first century in a World Cup game.[26]
