D’Arcy Short (Australia) is in the Akcel United Kabul squad for APL T20 2026, picked in the Gold category at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026.
Born
9 August 1990, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
9 August 1990, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
Age
36
Nationality
Australian
Role
Left-handed opening batter
Bowling
Left-arm unorthodox spin
Batting
Left-hand bat
Current APL team
Akcel United Kabul
APL debut season
2026
APL Career
D’Arcy Short joins Akcel United Kabul 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 36-year-old left-handed opener from Australia with one of the most explosive
white-ball records in the draft pool: a List A score of 257, two Big Bash
League Player of the Tournament awards, and 31 white-ball caps for Australia.
Akcel are captained by Azmatullah Omarzai and coached by Shane McDermott, with
Nikhil Chopra as mentor, and Short gives them something no other Gold pick
offers — a proven powerplay hitter who also bowls left-arm wrist spin.
Short is new to the APL. He did not play the inaugural season in 2018 — his
name appears in none of the five squads published for that tournament. He was
28 at the time, in the middle of the breakout Australian summer that made his
name: Player of the Tournament in the Big Bash League, then a record 257 for
Western Australia a week before the APL began. The 2026 clubs are new sides
and inherit nothing from the 2018 clubs, so Short arrives with a clean slate.
The 2026 season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE, with the fixture list
still to be published.
What Akcel are buying is big-match batting. Short has scored 3,138 runs in
102 Big Bash matches at 34.11, with two hundreds and 23 fifties, and his best
innings tend to come when the stage is biggest — a then-record 122 not out
against Brisbane Heat at the Gabba, a 76 at Eden Park in a record T20I chase,
a 257 that still stands as the third-highest List A score ever made. He also
bowls a genuine wrist-spin option, with 40 BBL wickets and a career best of
five for 21. At 36 he is one of the oldest players in the draft, but his
recent form says the bat has not slowed: he made 83 off 48 balls for
Gloucestershire against Middlesex in July 2025, and 40 off 18 balls for
Lumbini Lions in the Nepal Premier League opener on 27 October 2026.
APL career stats
Short did not play the 2018 season, and the 2026 season has not started, so he
has no APL figures yet. The tables below will fill in once the first ball is
bowled on 27 December 2026.
JLT One-Day Cup · 28 September 2018 · Hurstville Oval, Sydney
Short walked in at the fall of Western Australia’s first wicket and did not
stop. He reached his hundred off 83 balls, his double century off 128, and
was finally stumped by Jimmy Peirson off Matthew Kuhnemann in the 46th over
for 257 off 148 balls — 15 fours and a record 23 sixes, at a strike rate of
173.64. It is the third-highest score in List A history, behind only Ali
Brown’s 268 and Rohit Sharma’s 264, and the highest ever made by an
Australian. Western Australia made 387 and beat Queensland by 116 runs; the
next-best score in the innings was Marcus Stoinis’ 27.
Why it mattered: one innings made him a record-holder for
life — and one of his sixes was hit so hard it shattered a window at
Hurstville Oval.
122 not out vs Brisbane Heat
Big Bash League · 10 January 2018 · The Gabba, Brisbane
Short’s 122 not out off 69 balls was the highest score in Big Bash history
at the time, passing Luke Wright’s 117. He hit eight fours and eight sixes,
reached his hundred off 63 balls after being dropped by Joe Burns on 60, and
finished with three sixes off the final over. His 122 was 68 per cent of the
Hurricanes’ 179 for 4 — the largest share of a team total in BBL history.
Brisbane Heat fell three runs short, and Short added one for 20 with the
ball, dismissing top scorer Sam Heazlett. He was Player of the Match.
Why it mattered: the innings that announced him to
Australia — a national call-up followed within weeks, after he had twice
been dismissed in the 90s earlier that month.
76 vs New Zealand
Twenty20 International · 16 February 2018 · Eden Park, Auckland
New Zealand had posted 243, helped by Martin Guptill’s century, and Australia
needed a record chase. Short, opening with David Warner, put on 121 for the
first wicket — including 91 runs in the powerplay — and made 76 off 46 balls
before Australia completed the highest successful T20I chase ever recorded at
the time. He was Player of the Match in his fourth T20I.
Why it mattered: his first great international innings, in a
chase that stood as the format’s benchmark — and proof his BBL form travelled.
223-run stand with Aaron Finch vs Zimbabwe
Twenty20 International · 3 July 2018 · Harare
Short and Aaron Finch put on 223 for the first wicket against Zimbabwe — the
first 200-plus partnership for any wicket in T20I history, and the highest
T20I opening stand ever recorded at the time. Finch made a world-record
individual T20I score of 172 off 76 balls; Short’s contribution was 46 off
42, holding the innings together while Finch went past him. Australia won by
100 runs, their biggest T20I winning margin at the time.
Why it mattered: a world record shared with a captain — and
the stand that still defines Short’s international career.
5 for 21 vs Sydney Thunder
Big Bash League · January 2020
Short is known first as a batter, but his left-arm wrist spin has won games
too. His career-best T20 figures — five for 21 against Sydney Thunder in
January 2020 — remain his only five-wicket haul in the format, and they came
in a Hurricanes shirt the season after his second Player of the Tournament award.
Why it mattered: the figures that make him a genuine
all-rounder in T20 cricket, not just a batter who bowls a few overs.
Playing style and strengths
Short is a powerplay destroyer. A left-handed opener, he takes the bowling on
from the first over, strong square of the wicket and brutal against spin,
with a sweep that can clear the rope against the turning ball. His best
innings are built on acceleration rather than accumulation: his 257 went from
a hundred in 83 balls to a double century in 45 more, and his 122 not out at
the Gabba finished with three sixes in the final over. In 102 Big Bash
matches he has scored 3,138 runs at 34.11 with a strike rate of 131.46 —
305 fours and 107 sixes — and he is as comfortable batting anywhere from one
to six as he is opening, a versatility his Gloucestershire coach praised when
he signed for the 2025 T20 Blast.
With the ball he is a left-arm unorthodox spinner — a chinaman bowler — who
deceives batters with drift and turn rather than pace off the pitch. He has
taken 40 BBL wickets at 33.75, including a five for 21 against Sydney
Thunder, and captains have used him in the powerplay as well as through the
middle overs. In the field he is safe, with 44 catches in the BBL. For
Akcel, the package is a top-order batter who can win a game in ten overs and
a second spinner who can bowl when the quicks need a rest.
Records and milestones
List A 257 off 148 vs Queensland, Hurstville Oval, 28 September 2018 — third-highest List A score ever, highest by an Australian, record 23 sixes.
BBL|07 Player of the Tournament — 572 runs, most in the competition, including a then-record 122 not out vs Brisbane Heat, the Gabba, 10 January 2018.
BBL|08 Player of the Tournament — 637 runs in 14 matches, six half-centuries, highest 96 not out.
T20I 76 off 46 vs New Zealand, Eden Park, 16 February 2018 — Player of the Match in the highest successful T20I chase at the time (244).
World-record 223-run T20I opening stand with Aaron Finch vs Zimbabwe, Harare, 3 July 2018 — first 200-plus stand in T20I history.
Sixth Indigenous player to represent Australia (T20I debut, February 2018).
BBL: 102 matches, 3,138 runs at 34.11, two hundreds, 23 fifties, best 122 not out; 40 wickets, best 5 for 21.
ODI: 8 matches, 211 runs at 30.14, highest 69; T20I: 23 matches, 642 runs at 30.57, highest 76 — as of April 2026.
First-class: 25 matches, 1,261 runs at 31.52, highest 87; 28 wickets, best 3 for 78. List A: 73 matches, 2,105 runs at 33.41, highest 257.
Durham 2019 T20 Blast: 483 runs at 43.90 in 12 innings — fourth-highest run-scorer in the tournament.
Career outside APL
D’Arcy Short was born in Katherine in the Northern Territory on 9 August
1990, and moved to Darwin at about the age of four. He is of Indigenous
Australian descent through his maternal grandmother, a direct descendant of
the Migunberri people. His parents ran an indoor sports centre in Darwin, and
he grew up playing indoor cricket before progressing through the Darwin grade
leagues. At 16 he was commuting between Darwin and Adelaide to play in the
South Australian grade competition, and he later moved to Perth for more
opportunity. He played for an Indigenous Australian team on a tour of England
in 2009, made his Futures League debut for Western Australia in February
2010, and was named the Lord’s Taverners Indigenous Cricketer of the Year in
March 2011.
The senior career started slowly. His List A debut came in November 2011
against New South Wales, when he scored three runs but took two wickets with
his left-arm wrist spin, including one from the second delivery he bowled.
Five years passed before his first-class debut, for Western Australia
against Tasmania at the WACA on 17 November 2016, and his T20 debut followed
a month later for Hobart Hurricanes — 61 off 29 balls against Sydney Sixers.
He spent more than five years on the fringes of state cricket and, by his own
account, very nearly quit the sport altogether.
Then came the summer that changed everything. In BBL|07 he scored 572 runs
for the Hurricanes, the most in the competition, including a then-record 122
not out against Brisbane Heat at the Gabba on 10 January 2018, and was named
Player of the Tournament. A month later he made his T20I debut for Australia
against New Zealand at Sydney, becoming the sixth Indigenous player to
represent the country, and within a fortnight he had made 76 at Eden Park in
a record chase of 244. He made his ODI debut against England at Cardiff on
16 June 2018, shared a world-record 223-run opening stand with Aaron Finch
against Zimbabwe in July, and in September smashed 257 for Western Australia
against Queensland — the third-highest List A score ever made. He was bought
by Rajasthan Royals for ₹4 crore in the 2018 IPL auction, but managed only
115 runs in seven matches and was released after the season.
The international career was bright but brief: eight ODIs and 23 T20Is
between 2018 and 2020, with a last ODI against New Zealand at Sydney on
13 March 2020 — played behind closed doors as the pandemic arrived — and a
last T20I against India at Sydney on 8 December 2020. He never played Test
cricket. Domestically he kept producing: Player of the Tournament again in
BBL|08 with 637 runs, 82 games and 2,706 runs for the Hurricanes in all,
and a move to Adelaide Strikers on a two-year deal in August 2023, where he
joined namesake Matt Short. For Western Australia he was a key member of the
hat-trick of 50-over titles from 2021–22 to 2023–24 and finished as the
state’s 10th-highest One-Day Cup run-scorer of all time, with 1,687 runs at
35.14 — but in May 2025, aged 34, he lost his state contract as Western
Australia invested in youth.
Since then he has played as a travelling T20 specialist. He had already
played the T20 Blast for Durham in 2019 — 483 runs at 43.90, the
tournament’s fourth-highest scorer — and for Hampshire in 2021, and was
drafted by Trent Rockets for the first season of The Hundred in 2021 and
signed by Dambulla Giants for the Lanka Premier League in 2022. In May 2025
he signed for Gloucestershire for the T20 Blast, reuniting with Western
Australia teammate Cameron Bancroft and making 83 off 48 balls against
Middlesex, 70 against Surrey and 71 not out against Somerset as the county
reached the quarter-finals. In July 2026 he was named in a Perth Scorchers
XI squad for the Guyana Global Super League, and in October 2026 he opened
for Lumbini Lions in the Nepal Premier League, smashing 40 off 18 balls in
their opening win over Sudurpaschim Royals. The APL is his next stop — a
first season in Afghanistan’s league, at 36, for Akcel United Kabul.
Which team does D’Arcy Short play for in APL 2026?
D’Arcy Short plays for Akcel United Kabul 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. Akcel are captained by Azmatullah Omarzai, coached by Shane McDermott and mentored by Nikhil Chopra, and the season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE.
Did D’Arcy Short play in the first APL season in 2018?
No. D’Arcy Short did not play the inaugural 2018 season — his name appears in none of the five squads published for that tournament. He was 28 at the time, in the middle of a breakout Australian summer, having just been named Player of the Tournament in the Big Bash League. APL 2026 is his first season in the competition, and his first for Akcel United Kabul.
What is D’Arcy Short’s highest score in cricket?
257 off 148 balls for Western Australia against Queensland at Hurstville Oval on 28 September 2018, in the JLT One-Day Cup. It is the third-highest score in List A history, behind Ali Brown’s 268 and Rohit Sharma’s 264, and the highest by an Australian, passing Ben Dunk’s 229 not out. The innings included a record 23 sixes, and Western Australia won by 116 runs.
What did D’Arcy Short achieve in the Big Bash League?
He was Player of the Tournament in back-to-back seasons, BBL|07 and BBL|08, for Hobart Hurricanes. In BBL|07 he scored 572 runs, the most in the competition, including a then-record 122 not out against Brisbane Heat at the Gabba. In BBL|08 he scored 637 runs. He moved to Adelaide Strikers in 2023 and has played 102 BBL matches, scoring 3,138 runs.
Has D’Arcy Short played international cricket?
Yes, for Australia in white-ball cricket between 2018 and 2020 — eight ODIs and 23 T20Is. He made his T20I debut against New Zealand at Sydney on 3 February 2018 and his ODI debut against England at Cardiff on 16 June 2018. His best T20I innings was 76 off 46 balls against New Zealand at Eden Park, in Australia’s record chase of 244, and he shared a world-record 223-run opening stand with Aaron Finch against Zimbabwe.
