Fareed Ahmad Malik

A left-arm medium-pace bowler, Malik plays for Afghanistan national cricket team and made his international debut in 2014. Afghanistan has produced some of the best modern-day spinners in world cricket at the moment. However, Malik is a rare commodity who loves to bowl fast and is a hit-the deck hard kind of a bowler.

Malik made his ODI debut against UAE in the third match of the five-game series in 2014. He was quite expensive in his debut match, going for 44 runs in six overs and was unable to pick up a single wicket.

Two years later, he made his T20I debut against the same opponent, and this time around Malik turned the match on its head with his raw pace. He bagged 2 wickets and gave away just 21 runs in his quota of four overs as Afghanistan won the match by 11 runs. 

Malik has enjoyed bowling against Ireland. In an ODI played at Noida, the pacer took 3 wickets and completely rattled the Irish top-order.

After being in and out of the Afghan team due to poor form and injury, Malik made his return in the T20 squad to face Zimbabwe in March 2021.

A talented left-arm pacer, Malik has not quite lived up to the expectations of the national selectors. Afghanistan generally plays with three spinners in their playing XI, and as a result, Malik received very few chances to cement his place in the shorter formats of the game.

(As of Mar 2021)