Usman Ghani

Usman Ghani is one of the new kids on the blocks in the Afghanistan Cricket. A right-handed explosive opening-batsman who has the vast capability to devastate any kind of bowling attack. One of the most exciting prospects, Ghani is on-road to map his national side on the world stage.

The opener is a byproduct of the U-19 World Cup of 2014, where Afghanistan defeated the odds to win games against Australia and Sri Lanka, and Ghani played a vital part in the tournament. He soon got his Afghanistan cap to make his debut against Hong Kong. The dasher celebrated his debut with a quickfire 70 and scored his maiden century a couple of games later. 

On the back of a staggering 2014 season, Usman got selected for the 2015 World Cup. The opener bashed a match-winning ton in one of the warmup matches. During the tournament, he played two games against the hosts, Australia and New Zealand, but could make any mark. 

Following that year, the opener made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe. As his career progressed, Usman went on to display his power-hitting aspect in the shortest format but lost his ODI berth. In 2019, Usman stitched a record 236-run stand with Hazaratullah Zazai during a T20I game against Ireland where the former blasted 73 runs off just 48 balls.

Over the years, Usman is emerged as one of the most powerful hitters of the cricket ball, however, with the emergence of Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz in Afghanistan set up, Usman is losing his spot but he is too good to re-establish himself. 

(As of March 2021)