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Fazalhaq Farooqi- The Afghan pace man from Baghlan



Ever since Rashid Khan has emerged, Afghanistan has had handful of spinners coming from its system. However, not so long ago this country wasn't known as a spin producing country but a fast bowler producing country. The Afghani blue was once clothed by the likes of Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Izatullah Dawlatzai and Dawlat Zadran. But with time, these pacers developed injuries' and while they retired, more pacers were expected to come. Soon, Rashid Khan would get discovered and every bowler that has come out from Afghanistan has been a spinner.

While the country has produced some medium pacers, fast bowling seemed to had gone extinct. 

In comes Fazalhaq Farooqi, a left arm pacer. The young pace man would start his journey from the U-19 cricket scenes in Afghanistan. He would take part in the U-19 World Cup of 2020 where he would get 5 wickets in four games at an economy rate of 5.12.

Interestingly enough, Farooqi wasn't immediately selected to play in his country's domestic league. While he would be on the bench, he started to attract different leagues; from T10 in UAE to Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

Eventually, Farooqi would land himself a position of a net bowler in the IPL with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2021. A year later, he would be picked in the IPL 2022 auction by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The Baghlan pacer can bowl at speeds above 130kph. He has an outswing and an inswing in his amour. In 2022 alone his skillset has been witnessed twice. First it was during the ODI series against Bangladesh where he would take 4 wickets for 19 runs to defend a small total of 216. His performance was again emulated against Sri Lanka during the Asia Cup 2022, when his two early scalps from his swing bowling caused a massive collapse in the Lankan line up. At one point Fazalhaq was on a hattrick and would finish the game with 3 wickets along with winning the man of the match award.

Afghanistan is stacked with spin options, and with the right pacer or two, this team can start challenging oppositions with their bowling talent alone.


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