Afsar Khan Zazai is Afghanistan's first Test cap and a wicket-keeper batter with 10 Tests behind him, and he joins Balkh Zwanan for APL T20 2026 as a Gold pick from the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for a reported US$40,000.
Afsar Khan Zazai joins Balkh Zwanan as a Gold pick of the 2026 draft, signed at
the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026 for a reported US$40,000. He is
a 33-year-old right-hand wicket-keeper batter with 10 Tests for Afghanistan
behind him, and he brings something no other Gold pick in the league can
offer: a man who was there at the very start of Afghanistan's Test story, as
the country's first Test cap. Balkh are captained by Ibrahim Zadran and
coached by Mickey Arthur, with Tillakaratne Dilshan as mentor, and Zazai
gives them a specialist keeper and a calm head in the middle order.
He is not new to this league. Zazai played in the first APL season in October
2018, for Kabul Zwanan — two matches, six runs and two catches. Against
Kandahar Knights on 16 October 2018 he batted at No. 4, made 6 off 13, and
caught Paul Stirling for a duck off Wayne Parnell as Kabul won by four
wickets. Two days later, against Paktia Panthers, he kept wicket, did not
bat as Kabul made 168 for 4, and caught Calum MacLeod for 35 — Paktia won by
six wickets. He spent the rest of the tournament on the bench, including the
semi-final, as Luke Ronchi kept wicket, and Kabul finished as runners-up
after losing the final to Balkh Legends by four wickets. The 2026 clubs are
new sides that inherit nothing from the 2018 clubs, so Zazai's 2018 record
belongs to a different, now-defunct franchise — but the experience of the
tournament itself is his.
What Balkh are buying is experience and recent form. Zazai's maiden Test
hundred — 113 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in December 2024 — came in
Afghanistan's record total of 699, and in May 2026 he hit back-to-back List A
hundreds for Boost Region, 121 against Band-e-Amir and 100 against Speen
Ghar. He is 33, he has kept wicket in 10 Tests, and he arrives at the APL as
a player who has waited a long time for a stage like this. The 2026 season
starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE, with the fixture list still to be
published.
APL career stats
Zazai has an APL past, unlike most of the Gold picks. His two matches for
Kabul Zwanan in 2018 are in the tables below — six runs in one innings, and
two catches — and the 2026 row stays blank until the first ball is bowled on
27 December 2026.
First Test · 26–30 December 2024 · Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
Zazai's maiden Test hundred came eleven years after his T20I debut, and it
came in Afghanistan's biggest Test innings. Resuming on the last day with
Afghanistan on 515 for 3, he reached his hundred and made 113 off 169
balls before being caught at backward point by substitute Johnathan
Campbell. His 211-run stand with Hashmatullah Shahidi, who made 246,
carried Afghanistan to 699 — their highest Test total. Zimbabwe made 586
and 142 for 4, and the match was drawn.
Why it mattered: a maiden Test hundred at 31, in
Afghanistan's highest Test total — the innings that finally put a hundred
next to his name in Test cricket.
60 off 109 on ODI debut
One Day International · 28 November 2014 · ICC Academy, Dubai
Zazai announced himself in his first ODI with a fifty that won him the
gloves for a World Cup. Against the UAE at Dubai he made 60 off 109 balls,
took a catch and pulled off a stumping, and followed it with 51 off 83 in
the second match of the series. Six dismissals in the four-match series
later, he was Afghanistan's first-choice wicket-keeper at the 2015 World
Cup, after Mohammad Shahzad was left out of the squad on fitness grounds.
Why it mattered: sixty on debut, then fifty-one in the
next match — the series that won him a World Cup place.
84 not out on first-class debut
ICC Intercontinental Cup · 2 April 2012 · Sharjah Cricket Stadium
He was 18, playing his first first-class match, and Afghanistan were 111
for 6 chasing 233 against the Netherlands. Zazai did not give up. He made
an unbeaten 84 off 156 balls, with 13 fours, adding 76 with Mohammad Nabi
and an unbroken 46 with Samiullah Shenwari, and carried Afghanistan to a
three-wicket win on the second day. It was the innings that marked him out
as a keeper who could bat under pressure.
Why it mattered: an 18-year-old debutant winning a
first-class match from 111 for 6 — the innings that started his career.
202 vs Pamir Legends
Ahmad Shah Abdali First-Class Tournament · 15 June 2025 · Mahipar Stars vs Pamir Legends
Thirteen years after his first-class debut, Zazai made his first double
hundred — and he did it as captain. Leading Mahipar Stars against Pamir
Legends in the Ahmad Shah Abdali First-Class Tournament, he scored 202
with 18 fours and four sixes, and Mahipar Stars had 409 for 9 at the close
of play. It remains his highest first-class score, and the biggest innings
of his domestic career.
Why it mattered: a maiden first-class double hundred, as
captain, at 31 — the biggest innings of his domestic career.
121 vs Band-e-Amir
Ghazi Amanullah Khan One Day Tournament · 22 May 2026 · Amanullah Khan International Cricket Stadium, Ghazi
The form that carried Zazai into the APL draft came in May 2026, in the
Ghazi Amanullah Khan One Day Tournament. Playing for Boost Region against
Band-e-Amir, he made 121 off 120 balls with 15 fours and two sixes, was
named Player of the Match, and Boost won by 186 runs. Two days later he
made 100 off 116 against Speen Ghar — back-to-back List A hundreds, at
32, in the months before the draft.
Why it mattered: back-to-back List A hundreds in May 2026
— the form that put him on Balkh's draft list.
Playing style and strengths
Zazai is a right-hand wicket-keeper batter who bats in the middle order and
builds his game on patience. His best innings are long ones — 113 off 169
balls in a Test, 84 not out off 156 on his first-class debut, 202 in the
four-day game — and he is at his best when the situation demands a rebuild
rather than a rush. He drives well through the covers, leaves well outside
off stump, and his strike rate in Test cricket, 50.00, tells the story of a
batter who values his wicket. In the white-ball game he can lift the tempo —
his List A hundreds in May 2026 came at better than a run a ball — but his
first instinct is to stay in.
Behind the stumps he is safe rather than spectacular: 23 catches and a
stumping in 10 Tests, 20 catches and two stumpings in 17 ODIs, and 138
catches and 15 stumpings in first-class cricket. He does not bowl, and he
has never needed to — his value is in the gloves and in the calm he brings
to a dressing room. At 33 he is one of the most experienced players in the
Balkh squad, a man who has been Afghanistan's first Test cap, a World Cup
keeper and a domestic captain, and Balkh get a specialist who has seen the
game from every angle.
Records and milestones
Test debut (cap 1) on 14 June 2018 vs India at Bengaluru — Afghanistan's first Test cap; one of the eleven in Afghanistan's first Test.
Maiden Test hundred: 113 off 169 vs Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, December 2024 — in Afghanistan's record total of 699; 211-run stand with Hashmatullah Shahidi (246).
ODI debut on 28 November 2014 vs UAE at Dubai: 60 off 109, one catch and one stumping; 51 off 83 in the second ODI; six dismissals in the series.
First-choice wicket-keeper at the 2015 World Cup — 6 matches, 36 runs, 7 catches — after Mohammad Shahzad was left out on fitness.
First-class debut on 2 April 2012 vs Netherlands at Sharjah, aged 18: 84 not out off 156 in a three-wicket win chasing 233 from 111 for 6.
Maiden first-class hundred: vs Ireland at Greater Noida, March 2017, in the Intercontinental Cup.
Best first-class score: 202 vs Pamir Legends, 15 June 2025, as Mahipar Stars captain — 18 fours and four sixes.
Back-to-back List A hundreds in May 2026 for Boost Region: 121 off 120 vs Band-e-Amir on 22 May (Player of the Match) and 100 off 116 vs Speen Ghar on 24 May.
T20I debut (cap 24) on 11 October 2013 vs Kenya at Sharjah; last T20I on 7 October 2023 vs India, the Asian Games final at Hangzhou.
Asian Games silver medal with Afghanistan, Hangzhou 2023.
APL 2018: two matches for Kabul Zwanan, six runs and two catches; Kabul finished runners-up. Gold pick for Balkh Zwanan in 2026, for a reported US$40,000.
Career outside APL
Afsar Khan Zazai was born in Kabul on 10 August 1993, and he was marked out
as a keeper-batter while still a teenager. He effected nine dismissals in six
games at the Under-19 World Cup qualifiers in September 2009, and he was
just 16 when he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2010 Under-19 World
Cup in New Zealand, returning for a second Under-19 World Cup in Australia
in 2012. At 18 he made his first-class debut against the Netherlands in the
Intercontinental Cup at Sharjah, in April 2012, and his unbeaten 84 won the
match from 111 for 6. His T20I debut followed in October 2013 against Kenya,
and his ODI debut in November 2014 against the UAE.
The ODI debut series was the making of him. Sixty off 109 balls in the first
match, 51 off 83 in the second, six dismissals in the series — and when
Mohammad Shahzad was left out of the 2015 World Cup squad on fitness grounds,
Zazai was Afghanistan's first-choice wicket-keeper at the tournament, playing
six matches. He has played 17 ODIs in all, for 264 runs at 17.60, with his
best of 60 coming on debut, and his last ODI came in June 2017 against the
West Indies. In T20Is he has played eight matches for 141 runs, his best 48
against the UAE, and his last came in the Asian Games final against India in
October 2023, when Afghanistan took the silver medal.
Test cricket is where his story is most distinctive. He was Afghanistan's
first Test cap, debuting against India at Bengaluru on 14 June 2018, one of
the eleven men in the country's first Test. Ten Tests and 378 runs at 23.62
followed, with 23 catches and a stumping — and the hundred took its time. It
came at Bulawayo in December 2024, 113 off 169 against Zimbabwe, in
Afghanistan's record total of 699, with a 211-run stand alongside
Hashmatullah Shahidi. His most recent Test was against India at Mullanpur on
6 June 2026, when he took four catches in India's innings and made 3 and 8
as India won by an innings and 300 runs.
At home he has been a fixture of Afghanistan's domestic cricket for more than
a decade. In first-class cricket he has 3,086 runs at 36.73 in 56 matches,
with six hundreds and a best of 202 — made as Mahipar Stars captain against
Pamir Legends in June 2025 — and in List A cricket he has 2,106 runs at
29.25 in 84 matches, with a best of 121. The May 2026 hundreds for Boost
Region, 121 against Band-e-Amir and 100 against Speen Ghar, are his only two
List A hundreds, and they came in the months before the APL draft. He has
played for Band-e-Amir, Mis-e-Ainak, Amo and Boost regions, and for Amo
Sharks, Band-e-Amir Dragons, Bost Defenders, Mis-e-Ainak Knights, Pearl
Gladiators, Pamir Legends, Hindukush Strikers, Maiwand Champions and Mahipar
Stars. He was also one of two travelling reserves in Afghanistan's squad for
the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Unlike several of his Balkh team-mates, Zazai has never played in an overseas
franchise league — no IPL, BBL, PSL or The Hundred. His cricket has been
built at home, in Afghanistan's domestic competitions and for the national
side, with the APL as his franchise stage: Kabul Zwanan in 2018, Balkh
Zwanan in 2026. That makes him one of the few players in the 2026 draft who
already knows what an APL season feels like — the Sharjah crowds, the short
turnarounds, the bench and the XI — and at 33, with a Test hundred and two
List A hundreds in the last two years, he arrives in Balkh as a keeper who
can still win a match with the bat.
Which team does Afsar Khan Zazai play for in APL 2026?
Afsar Khan Zazai plays for Balkh Zwanan in APL T20 2026. He was picked in the Gold category at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for a reported US$40,000. Balkh are captained by Ibrahim Zadran, coached by Mickey Arthur and mentored by Tillakaratne Dilshan, and the season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE.
Did Afsar Khan Zazai play in the first APL season in 2018?
Yes. Afsar Khan Zazai played two matches for Kabul Zwanan in the first APL season in October 2018. Against Kandahar Knights on 16 October he made 6 off 13 and caught Paul Stirling for a duck, in a four-wicket win. Against Paktia Panthers on 18 October he kept wicket, did not bat, and caught Calum MacLeod. Kabul finished as runners-up.
What is Afsar Khan Zazai's highest Test score?
113 off 169 balls against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in December 2024. It was his maiden Test hundred, made in Afghanistan's record total of 699, in a 211-run stand with Hashmatullah Shahidi, who made 246. Zazai was caught at backward point by substitute Johnathan Campbell, and the match was drawn.
How many Tests has Afsar Khan Zazai played for Afghanistan?
Ten Tests, scoring 378 runs at an average of 23.62, with one hundred and 23 catches and a stumping, as of July 2026. He was Afghanistan's first Test cap, debuting against India at Bengaluru on 14 June 2018. His most recent Test was against India at Mullanpur on 6 June 2026, when he took four catches in India's innings.
Which other leagues has Afsar Khan Zazai played in?
He has not played in an overseas franchise league — no IPL, BBL, PSL or The Hundred. His cricket has been built at home, in Afghanistan's domestic competitions and for the national side, with the APL as his franchise stage: Kabul Zwanan in 2018 and Balkh Zwanan in 2026. He was a travelling reserve at the 2021 T20 World Cup.
