Rahmat Shah Zurmatai (; born 6 July 1993) is an Afghan cricketer who plays for the

Afghanistan national cricket team The Afghanistan men's national cricket team (, ) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One-Day International and T20 International status. Cricket has been play ...

. He is a right-handed batsman and an occasional leg break bowler. He made his international debut in an ODI against Scotland in March 2013. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, in June 2018. In September 2019, in the one-off Test between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Rahmat scored Afghanistan's first century in Test cricket.

Domestic career

Rahmat was named in a number of first-class and

One-Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

squads for Afghanistan. He has played

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

cricket for Afghanistan against Pakistan A and other domestic teams in Pakistan, such as

Faisalabad Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...

and

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut for

Band-e-Amir Dragons Band-e-Amir Dragons ( ''Band-e-Amīr Khāmārān / Shāmārān''; ) or Band-e-Amir Region is one of eight regional first-class cricket teams in Afghanistan. In the 2017 Shpageeza team auction, the Band-e-Amir Dragons team was bought by Paragon Bu ...

in the

2017 Shpageeza Cricket League The 2017 season of the Shpageeza Cricket League (), also known as SCL 5, was the fifth edition of the Shpageeza, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in 2013. The tournament featured the six t ...

on 12 September 2017. In July 2018, Rahmat was the leading run-scorer for

Mis Ainak Region The Mis Ainak Region are one of five Afghanistan men's first-class cricket teams that make up Afghanistan Cricket.It competes in the Mirwais Nika 3-Day Tournament first class (3-day) competition, Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournamen ...

in the

2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament The 2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament was a List A cricket competition that took place in Afghanistan between 10 and 27 July 2018. It was the second edition of the competition to be played with List A status, following the a ...

, with 258 runs in five matches. He was also the leading wicket-taker for the team in the tournament, with eight dismissals in five matches.

International career

Rahmat made his

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) debut for Afghanistan against Scotland on 6 March 2013. On 4 July 2016, he made his first century in an ODI during Afghanistan's tour of Scotland. In May 2018, Rahmat was named in Afghanistan's squad for their inaugural Test match, played against India. He made his Test debut for Afghanistan, against India, on 14 June 2018. In February 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's Test squad for their one-off match against Ireland in India. In April 2019, Rahmat was named in Afghanistan's squad for the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was hosted bet ...

. He finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer for Afghanistan, with 254 runs in nine matches. In April 2019, the

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; , ; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in Afghanistan. It is Afghanistan's representative at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and was an associate member ...

(ACB) named Shah as the team's new Test captain, replacing

Asghar Afghan Mohammad Asghar Afghan (; born Mohammad Asghar Stanikzai) is an Afghan former cricketer who had captained the Afghanistan national cricket team. Asghar is a right-handed batsman and a medium-fast bowler. In May 2018, he was named as the capta ...

. However, following the

Rashid Khan Rashid Khan Arman (; born 20 September 1998) is an Afghan international cricketer and captain of the Afghanistan national team in the T20I format. In franchise leagues, he plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide ...

was named as the new captain of the Afghanistan cricket team across all three formats. Therefore, Rahmat was replaced before captaining the team in a Test match. In September 2019, Rahmat scored a century in the one-off Test match against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, becoming the first batsman for Afghanistan to score a century in a Test match. In January 2024, Shah was named in Afghanistan's

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) squads for their series against India. On 11 January 2024, He made his T20I debut for Afghanistan against

. In December 2024, he made his maiden Test match double century in the first of a two-match series against Zimbabwe. His 234 was also the highest score by an Afghan batter in a Test match that point, although it was surpassed by teammate

Hashmatullah Shahidi Hashmatullah Shahidi (; born 4 November 1994) is an Afghan cricketer and currently the captain of Afghanistan national cricket team in One Day International (ODI) and Test cricket. He made his ODI debut for Afghanistan against Kenya in October 20 ...

who made 246 later in the same match.

T20 franchise career

In September 2018, Rahmat was named in Nangarhar's squad in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the

Afghanistan Premier League The Afghanistan Premier League (; ), officially Gulbahar Afghanistan Premier League for sponsorship reasons, was a Twenty20 cricket franchise tournament run by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), held in the United Arab Emirates.) The only tour ...

tournament.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Rahmat 1993 births Living people Afghan cricketers 21st-century Afghan sportsmen Afghanistan Test cricketers Afghanistan One Day International cricketers Sportspeople from Paktia Province Afghan Cheetahs cricketers Mohammedan Sporting Club cricketers Mis Ainak Knights cricketers Nangarhar Leopards cricketers Cricketers at the 2019 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 2023 Cricket World Cup