Powerful, imposing at the crease and blessed with tremendous hand-eye coordination, the 21-year-old is one of those batsmen for whom boundaries just never quite seem big enough
Born: March 23, 1998
Role: Left-hand bat
World beware, this kid can do damage.
Zazai burst onto the T20 scene in 2018 with back-to-back half-centuries against the Irish, including a brutal 82 in 54 balls at Bready, and followed that with six sixes in an over for Kabul Zwanan against Balkh Legends in the Afghanistan Premier League - he reached 50 in a frankly ridiculous 12 balls.
Zazai had in fact made his international debut some two years earlier, against the UAE in Dubai, without making the substantial impression he managed last year.
Powerful, imposing at the crease and blessed with tremendous hand-eye coordination, the 21-year-old is one of those batsmen for whom boundaries just never quite seem big enough.
That was never more obvious than during an extraordinary innings, again against poor old Ireland, in Dehradun in February.
There, Zazai compiled a scarcely conceivable 162 not out from just 62 deliveries. The blitzkrieg innings featured 16 sixes, a record in Afghanistan’s world-record total of 278.
Now is the time for this irrepressible youngster to show the skills are transferable onto the ODI stage.
Expect the crowds at Bristol and Taunton, where Afghanistan play three of their first five matches of this summer’s World Cup, to be diving for cover on a regular basis.
AFGHANISTAN PLAYER PROFILES
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