Arafat Minhas

Some Lesser Known Facts About Arafat Minhas

• Arafat Minhas developed a passion for cricket because of his father, Kashif Minhas, who was an Under-19 cricketer.

• In an interview, he said that he pursued a career in cricket to fulfil the dream of his father.

• At the age of 6, he would play tape-ball cricket at home.

• Since childhood, Minhas has been inspired by South African cricketer AB de Villiers. Apart from that, he also admires Ben Stokes.

• In 2014, at the age of 9, Minhas began to play red ball club-level cricket after he was selected to play for Crescent Club in Multan. Minhas was the youngest player in Crescent Club’s team at that time. The club is known for producing renowned Pakistani cricketers like Sohaib Maqsood, Aamer Yamin, and Zain Abbas.

• In 2017, he played in the PCB Under-13s Inter-Regional T20 Tournament in which he took 7 wickets.

  

• In the following season, he again played in the PCB Under-13s Inter-Regional T20 Tournament and took 6 wickets.

• In both years, he was invited to PCB’s high-performance camps for Under-13s.

• Between 2018 and 2020, he played at the Under-16 level.

• He was also associated with Tahir Mahmood Faiz’s Cricadiction Academy. In 2020, he represented the winning squad of Cricadiction Academy in the Zawari Premier League.

• He gave an impressive performance in the PCB National Under-16 One Day Tournament 2020/21. He was named the Player of the Tournament for scoring 312 runs and taking 9 wickets in 5 games.

  

• In 2021, Arafat Minhas scored 118 runs with 15 fours and 3 sixes in the U-16 National One Day Cup against Balochistan.

• He played for Southern Punjab Association Under-19s in the 2021-22 season.

• He took 22 wickets and scored 504 runs in the National Under-19 Championship 2021/22 (3-Day) and was named Player of the Tournament.

  

• He also performed well in the National Under-19 Cup 2021/22 (One day), where he took 10 wickets in 5 matches.

• Minhas captained Gwadar Sharks in the 2022 Pakistan Junior League. In the tournament, he scored 178 runs and took nine wickets at 17.67 to finish joint-fourth on the bowlers’ chart.

  

• On 10 December 2022, he made his List A debut for Southern Punjab against Sindh during the Pakistan Cup 2022/23. Southern Punjab were in a tough position after losing 4 wickets when Minhas joined Usman Salahuddin at the crease to chase the target of 276 runs. Together, they put up a 143-run partnership; Usman Salahuddin hit 89 and Minhas was out for 81.

•  Minhas scored 330 runs and 9 wickets in 10 games in the Pakistan Cup 2022/23.

• In August 2023, he was named to the Pakistan national cricket team for the 2022 Asian Games.

• In December 2022, Minhas, Mohammad Zeeshan, and Basit Ali were added to the Pakistani Test squad by the interim selection committee.

• In 2023, he represented the Pakistan A cricket team (Pakistan Shaheens) in Australia.

• In the same year, he joined Benazirabad Lals in the 2023 Sindh Premier League.

• He was named to Pakistan’s squad for the 2023 Sri Lanka Under-19s tour of Pakistan. On 24 October 2023, in the 2nd Youth ODI against Sri Lanka, Minhas became Player of the Match, scoring 95 off 66.

  

• Multan Sultans selected Minhas in the supplementary category during the 2023 Pakistan Super League players’ draft.

• In December 2023, he was named to Pakistan’s squad for the Under-19 Asia Cup 2023 and was appointed as its vice-captain.

• Arafat was selected in the silver category by Karachi Kings in the 2024 Pakistan Super League players’ draft.

  

• He was a part of the Pakistani squad for the 2024 ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.