Champions Trophy 2025: Who is Afghanistan Batsman Ibrahim Zadran?
Over the past few years, Afghanistan cricket has made giant waves in International Cricket with their exceptional fight and even stunned champion teams on multiple occasions at the ICC level. Even though they have yet to win a title, the bunch of Afghan cricketers are truly proving their mettle with each passing tournament by stepping up for the team when needed. One such batsman who is currently showing what he is truly made of is Ibrahim Zadran.
In the ongoing Champions Trophy, this 24-year-old youngster has stunned the likes of world-class bowling and showed that his team can fight back even when they are on the verge of bowing out of the tournament. The England vs Afghanistan match is a virtual knock-out in that whoever loses this match, will be out of the Champions Trophy.
In such a crucial match, Ibrahim Zadran scored a much-needed century and put Afghanistan out of trouble. The Afghans batted first and despite wickets falling on the other end, it was Zadran who kept the scoreboard ticking. But, who is Ibrahim Zadran? Let's find out.
Zadran was born in Khost, Afghanistan, and is the current vice-captain of the Afghanistan T20 cricket team. Zadran made his List-A debut for Afghanistan in 2017 and has never looked back. Ibrahim's test match debut for his country came in 2019 and since then, he has been a vital part of the team in their numerous match wins.
During the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, Ibrahim Zadran was named in the Afghan squad and he ended up being the leading run-scorer of the tournament with a massive 240 runs to his name. In June 2022, Ibrahim Zadran scored his first ODI century and it came against Zimbabwe. His second ODI century, however, was special as it came against a formidable Sri Lankan team in Pallekelle.
In the third ODI Afghanistan played against Sri Lanka in the same bilateral series, Ibrahim Zadran smashed 162 runs and created a record by being the first player to score the highest-ever ODI runs for Afghanistan.
After his streak of runs in 2022, Ibrahim Zadran qualified for the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup, where he turned out to be one of the star performers of the event. His match-winning knock in Afghanistan's stunning win over Pakistan will go down in the country's cricket history books. He later backed this performance with an even more memorble century against Australia and became the first player to ever score a century in a World Cup for Afghanistan.
However, Afghanistan lost that match owing to Glenn Maxwell's staggering performance while chasing.
