Fazalhaq Farooqi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Fazalhaq Farooqi

• Fazalhaq Farooqi’s village did not have electricity when he was born. Very few homes in the village had TV sets, hence he rarely watched any cricket match until the age of 17.

• Most of his friends played football, the popular sport in the area.

• During his teenage years, he started cricket training at a cricket academy in Baghlan which a provincial association set up.

• He initially played with a tennis ball in the local cricket tournaments.

• On 13 November 2017, he made his first-class debut for the Amo Region in the 2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament.

  

• On 10 July 2018, he played his maiden List-A match for the Amo Region in the 2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One-Day Tournament.

  

• Farooqi played for Nangarhar in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament in September 2018.

• He represented the Afghanistan Under-23 team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in December 2018.

• On 14 October 2019, he played his debut T20 match for Boost Defenders in the 2019 Shpageeza Cricket League.

• He took 5 wickets in 4 matches in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup held in South Africa.

  

• He was a net bowler for Punjab Kings in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) season and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2021 IPL season.

  

• In his debut T20I match, Farooqi did not get a chance to bat, and he took 1 wicket for 27 runs in 4 overs.

  

• He could not bat in his maiden ODI match but took 1 wicket for 30 runs in 6 overs.

• He was acquired by SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) for his base price of Rs 50 lakh in the 2022 IPL auction.

• On 8 May 2022, he made his IPL debut for SRH against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. He went wicketless for 47 runs in 4 overs and scored 2 runs in 8 deliveries.

  

• In the 2022 T20 World Cup held in Australia, he could not score any runs but took 3 wickets in 3 matches at an average of 25, a strike rate of 23, and an economy rate of 6.52 with the best bowling figure of 2 wickets for 29 runs.

  

• Farooqi took 6 wickets in 6 matches for Afghanistan in the 2023 ODI World Cup held in India at an average of 38, a strike rate of 40, and an economy rate of 5.70.  His best bowling figure was 4 wickets for 34 runs. He scored 2 runs as well.

  

• In December 2023, the NOC (No-Objection Certificate) of Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Naveen ul Haq to play in franchise leagues was cancelled by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). The board alleged that these players kept their personal interests above national duties.

• In Afghanistan’s opening match in the 2024 T20 World Cup held in the USA on 3 June 2024, he took a 5-wicket haul against Uganda by taking 5 wickets for 9 runs. He won the ‘Man of the Match’ Award for his performance.