All-rounder Akcel United Kabul
Akcel United Kabul captain and the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2024, back in the APL eight years after making his T20 debut with Paktia Panthers.
149*
Highest ODI score
5/58
Best ODI bowling
116
T20I hundred, Oct 2026
417
ODI runs in 2024
Last updated 5 November 2026, 15:40 GST
Azmatullah Omarzai was 18 when he made his Twenty20 debut in the first APL season. Named in Paktia Panthers' squad in September 2018, he played his first T20 match on 7 October 2018 against Nangarhar Leopards at Sharjah, where Paktia won by 21 runs. The league folded after that one season, and it would be eight years before he played in it again.
The scorecards that survive show a young seamer learning the format. Against Balkh Legends on 13 October 2018 he took 1 for 39 in four overs, dismissing Darwish Rasooli for 44. In the semi-final against Kabul Zwanan on 20 October he made 11 off 12 as Paktia were bowled out for 102 and lost by 90 runs, with Rashid Khan taking 4 for 20. No single verified source gives his full 2018 figures, so this page does not invent a season total for him.
He returns in 2026 as a captain and as the best ODI all-rounder in the world. At the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, Akcel United Kabul picked him as their Afghan Icon and named him captain, with Shane McDermott as head coach and Nikhil Chopra as mentor. Kabul took Johnson Charles in Platinum, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Dushmantha Chameera in Diamond, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman with the first Gold pick, then added D'Arcy Short, Imran Tahir, Hazratullah Zazai and Curtis Campher. The season starts on 27 December 2026, and Omarzai will lead a side that did not exist eight years ago.
His 2018 figures are not in a single verified source, so the 2018 row is marked To be confirmed. The scorecard fragments that are verified are 1 for 39 against Balkh Legends on 13 October 2018 and 11 off 12 in the semi-final against Kabul Zwanan on 20 October 2018.
| Season | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | Strike rate | 50s / 100s | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed |
| 2026 | Season not started | ||||||||
| Season | Matches | Overs | Wickets | Best figures | Average | Economy | Strike rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | To be confirmed |
| 2026 | Season not started | ||||||
What could not be verified: his aggregate APL 2018 figures, his individual returns at the 2022 T20 World Cup, and a second Test, against India in June 2026, for which no match report or series record was found. Those are marked To be confirmed rather than estimated.
| Year | Team | Matches | Runs / Wickets | Team finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Paktia Panthers | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | Semi-finals |
| 2026 | Akcel United Kabul | Season not started | Season not started | To be confirmed |
116 off 50 balls, with 5 fours and 12 sixes, reaching his hundred off 44 balls. Afghanistan were 5 for 4 when he came in, and his 142-run stand with Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai took them to 221 for 7. Afghanistan won by 19 runs and sealed the series.
Why it mattered: his maiden T20I hundred, and the first by a Full Member player from No. 6 or below.
149 not out off 115 balls, his maiden ODI hundred, in a 242-run stand with Mohammad Nabi after Afghanistan had slipped to 19 for 3 chasing 383. Afghanistan made 339 for 6 and lost by seven runs.
Why it mattered: the innings that announced him as a leading ODI batter, and the centrepiece of his ICC award-winning year.
41 off 31 balls, then 5 for 58 in 9.5 overs, his first ODI five-wicket haul and his career-best ODI bowling. His wickets were Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jamie Overton and Adil Rashid. Afghanistan won by eight runs and England were eliminated.
Why it mattered: the all-round display that made him only the second player ever, after Jacques Kallis, to score a fifty and take a five-for in one Champions Trophy edition.
67 off 63 balls, with five sixes, plus 1 for 43, as Afghanistan posted 273. Rain ended the match with Australia on 109 for 1, so there was no result and Afghanistan were eliminated.
Why it mattered: the fifty that completed the Kallis-only record, two days after the five-for against England.
62 off 69 balls, with two fours and four sixes, his first World Cup fifty, in a 121-run stand with Hashmatullah Shahidi. Afghanistan made 272 for 8 at Delhi.
Why it mattered: his first fifty at a World Cup, in a tournament where he scored 353 runs and took seven wickets.
Omarzai bowls right-arm fast-medium, and his value is that he does two jobs, with the new ball and at the death. He swings it both ways up front. Sachin Tendulkar, watching his wrist position at the 2023 World Cup, compared him to Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. At the death he has the full set of slower balls, wide yorkers, straight yorkers and slower-ball bouncers, as his coach Jonathan Trott described it after the 2026 T20 World Cup. Cricbuzz calls him a bowler with excellent control who can swing the new ball both ways.
With the bat he is a middle-order power hitter who can also pace an innings. His ODI strike rate is 98.44 and his T20I strike rate 133.8, and the 12 sixes in his 116 off 50 against Zimbabwe in October 2026 showed what happens when he gets going low down the order. In the field he is rated a superb fielder. Gulbadin Naib said he dominates a game in batting, bowling and fielding, and he has 25 T20I catches and 10 ODI catches.
Omarzai started playing cricket at 14 in Nurgal District, Kunar Province, and was in Afghanistan's squad for the 2018 Under-19 World Cup before he had played a senior T20. He made his ODI debut against Ireland at Abu Dhabi on 21 January 2021, his T20I debut against Bangladesh at Mirpur on 3 March 2022, and his Test debut against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on 26 December 2024, when he was out for a golden duck and took 1 for 66. He was joint Player of the Tournament in the 2020 Shpageeza Cricket League.
The 2023 ODI World Cup made his name. He scored 353 runs and took seven wickets in the tournament, with three fifties: 62 off 69 against India at Delhi, 73 not out off 63 against Sri Lanka at Pune, and 97 not out off 107 against South Africa at Ahmedabad. At the 2024 T20 World Cup he was part of the side that reached Afghanistan's first World Cup semi-final, and in the semi-final against South Africa he top-scored with 10 off 12 as Afghanistan were bowled out for 56. At the 2025 Champions Trophy he scored 126 runs and took seven wickets in three matches, with 41 off 31 and 5 for 58 against England at Lahore and 67 off 63 against Australia.
In franchise cricket he played for Gujarat Titans in 2024, making his IPL debut against Mumbai Indians on 24 March 2024 with 17 off 11 and 2 for 27, then joined Punjab Kings in 2025 for INR 2.40 crore and played nine matches as the Kings reached the final. He has also played for Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL, Rangpur Riders in the BPL, Jaffna Kings in the LPL, MI Cape Town in the SA20 and MI New York in Major League Cricket. No Big Bash, Hundred or CPL stint has been found for him.
| Format | Matches | Runs | Highest | Wickets | Bowling average | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 66.00 | 1/66 |
| ODI | 51 | 1,262 | 149* | 55 | 27.67 | 5/58 |
| T20I | 72 | 1,041 | 116 | 61 | 23.98 | 4/9 |
| First-class | 7 | 153 | 40* | 17 | 27.52 | 4/73 |
Test figures are for his verified debut only, against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on 26 December 2024. The 1 November 2026 snapshot lists a second Test, against India in June 2026, but no match report or series record for it was found, so it is not counted here.
Akcel United Kabul. The franchise picked him as their Afghan Icon at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026 and named him captain, with Shane McDermott as head coach and Nikhil Chopra as mentor.
Yes. He was named in Paktia Panthers' squad in September 2018 and made his Twenty20 debut for them against Nangarhar Leopards at Sharjah on 7 October 2018. He played the semi-final against Kabul Zwanan on 20 October, making 11 off 12 as Paktia were bowled out for 102 and lost by 90 runs.
He is an all-rounder. He bats right-handed in the middle order and bowls right-arm fast-medium, swinging the new ball both ways and bowling at the death. He is also rated a superb fielder.
He was named the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2024, announced on 27 January 2025, the first Afghan to win a major ICC annual award. In 2024 he scored 417 ODI runs at an average of 52.12 and took 17 wickets at 20.47 in 14 matches.
Gujarat Titans in 2024, then Punjab Kings in 2025. He made his IPL debut for Gujarat against Mumbai Indians on 24 March 2024, with 17 off 11 and 2 for 27. Punjab bought him for INR 2.40 crore and he played nine matches as the Kings reached the final. Across the two seasons he played 16 matches, scored 99 runs and took 12 wickets.
