Today, we are going to talk about a player who is the 3rd leading run-scorer in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup tournament 2024, impressing everyone with his sensational batting, which has helped his team to win 4 out of 3 games in the group stage and qualify for the Super 8 stage of the tournament.

You might be thinking it would be from Australia, India or, from West Indies, but this young lad is from a team who have shown a lot of improvement in the last 5 years. Yes! We are talking about Afghanistan’s hard-hitting opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who has scored most runs till now in the tournament from the Afghanistan national cricket team by playing in 4 matches of the marquee event, he has scored a total of 167 runs with an average of 41.75, having 2 fifties to his on a strike rate of 150 plus.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz was born on November 28, 2001, in the Kabul district of Afghanistan. His parents hailed from the Gurbaz tribe of Afghanistan and while growing up he used to face a lot of challenges in living in a rural and tumultuous area, Gurbaz, found peace in cricket, playing with improvised equipment. 

Being the son of a School Principal, Gurbaz’s father wanted him to pursue a career in medicine. However, Gurbaz followed his passion to play cricket, where he was supported by his friends who were aware of his natural talent. In the initial stage of his career, one of his friends, Mohammad Qadir, provided help in transportation and even invested in cricket equipment for Gurbaz, while another friend, Hedayatullah, gave his own bat to him.

However, the path to becoming an international cricketer was not easy for the young wicket-keeper batsman of Afghanistan national cricket team, as in the early stage of his career, when he pursued cricket instead of medicine, his brother Afsar reacted strongly by burning his cricket bat. Despite this setback, Gurbaz got full support from his friends and allowed him to continue playing. Later, his extraordinary batting skills caught the attention of Mohammad Khan Zadran, a former cricketer and coach, when he scored a half-century. Impressed by his potential, Zadran invited Gurbaz to join an academy and offered to guide his advancement in cricket.

Domestic Career

Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s hard work and support from his friends paved the way for him as in the year 2017, against the Zimbabwe A tour, the right-hand batsman got a chance to make his list A debut for Afghanistan A. Later, he made his Twenty20 debut for Mis Ainak Knights in the 2017 Shpageeza Cricket League on September 12, 2017, before making his first-class debut for Mis Ainak Region in the 2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament on March 1, 2018.

2018-2022 (Years of success)

In these 4 years, the opening batter from the Afghanistan national cricket team has made a big name in T2o cricket, where in September 2018, he was named in Paktia's squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament before being selected in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and Caribbean Premier League (CPL)  for the Khulna Tigers and Barbados Tridents in 2019-20 season for the respective franchise.

After being impressed by his skills as a destructive top-order batsman and a safe wicket-keeper option behind the stumps, different T20 franchises approached him for their respective T20 leagues, making him selected in the Pakistan Super League (PSL)  from Multan Sultans before being selected to play for the Jaffna Kings in the year 2021 in Lanka Premier League (LPL).

But the turning point in his career came when he got selected in one of the best leagues in the league in place of England opener Jason Roy in Gujarat Titans team in the Indian Premier League 2022 season. However, the next year, he got traded to Kolkata Knight Riders franchise ahead of the IPL 2023 and represented the now three-time, then two-time IPL Champions. He made his debut against Punjab Kings. He played a crucial role and helped KKR win their third IPL championship.

International Career

The Right-hand wicket-keeper batsman made his international debut in the year 2017 in for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Later, he was the leading run-scorer for Afghanistan in the 2018 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup, with 117 runs in just four matches, which made him pick in   Afghanistan's under-23 team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

The 22-year-old cricketer was picked in 2019-20 against the Bangladesh Tri-Nation series, T20I series. However, he made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe on September  14, 2019. In next year, he made his ODI debut against Ireland after being picked up in the Ireland series, where he became the first batsman from Afghanistan cricket to score a hundred on his ODI debut. After this knock, he represented the Afghanistan team in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 and ODI World Cup 2023.

This star batsman will be seen playing against India, today at Barbados for the first match of the Super 8 of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.