Left-arm fast bowler Akcel United Kabul
The joint-highest wicket-taker at the 2024 T20 World Cup, and the new-ball spearhead of Akcel United Kabul for APL 2026.
17
Wickets, T20 World Cup 2024 (joint-highest)
5/9
Best T20I figures, vs Uganda 2024
Diamond
2026 draft, US$65,000
2026
APL debut season
Last updated 5 November 2026, 19:55 GST
He was named in Nangarhar Leopards' squad for the first APL season in 2018 but did not play a match — his Twenty20 debut came a year later, in October 2019.
Farooqi's name first appeared on an APL teamsheet in September 2018, when Nangarhar Leopards included the then 17-year-old in their squad for the inaugural season. He never got on the field. His Twenty20 debut came more than a year later, for Boost Defenders in the Shpageeza Cricket League in October 2019, and by the time the league returned he was Afghanistan's first-choice new-ball bowler and one of the most sought-after left-arm quicks in franchise cricket.
Akcel United Kabul took him in the first Diamond round at the Dubai draft on 3 November 2026, at the Diamond price of US$65,000, to lead an attack that also has Dushmantha Chameera and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. He plays under captain Azmatullah Omarzai, with Shane McDermott as head coach, and the season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE. Eight years after his name first appeared on a squad list, his APL debut is finally due.
Farooqi has no APL figures yet. He was named in Nangarhar Leopards' squad in 2018 but played no match, so the 2018 rows show zeroes, and the 2026 season has not started.
| Season | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | Strike rate | 50s / 100s | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | 0 / 0 | — | — |
| 2026 | Season not started | ||||||||
| Season | Matches | Overs | Wickets | Best figures | Average | Economy | Strike rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — |
| 2026 | Season not started | ||||||
| Year | Team | Matches | Runs / Wickets | Team finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Nangarhar Leopards | 0 | Did not play (squad only) | Semi-finalists |
| 2026 | Akcel United Kabul | Season not started | Season not started | To be confirmed |
5 for 9 in four overs at Providence, Guyana — his career-best T20I figures and Player of the Match as Afghanistan won by 125 runs.
Why it mattered: the first five-wicket haul of the tournament, and the spell that set up his record 17 wickets.
4 for 17 at Providence, dismissing Finn Allen with the first ball of the innings as Afghanistan won by 84 runs.
Why it mattered: two four-wicket hauls in his first two games of the tournament, against two very different batting sides.
4 for 34 at Pune, his career-best ODI figures and Player of the Match as Afghanistan chased 242 to win by seven wickets.
Why it mattered: the spell that kept Sri Lanka to 241, in a World Cup Afghanistan were winning a game at a time.
5 for 16 in the Season 3 opener for MI Emirates — still the best bowling figures in ILT20 history — on his way to the season's White Belt with 21 wickets in 11 matches.
Why it mattered: a league-record spell in the first game of the season, from a bowler MI Emirates had kept for a third straight year.
3 for 33 in four overs at Bridgetown, Barbados, in the Super 8 — the match in which he took his 50th T20I wicket, in his 39th match, in a 47-run defeat.
Why it mattered: his 50th wicket made him the fifth Afghan bowler to the mark, and only the second Afghan fast bowler after Naveen-ul-Haq.
Farooqi's first job is the new ball. He is a left-arm fast-medium bowler who swings it both ways, and Afghanistan hand him the first over more often than anyone else in the side: ten of his 17 wickets at the 2024 T20 World Cup came in the powerplay. The angle across right-handers and the late swing back in give him two ways to beat a batter in the same over, and his best spells — five for nine against Uganda, four for 17 against New Zealand — both came with the field up.
The second half of his game took longer to build. He worked on his death bowling with Dwayne Bravo, who was Afghanistan's fast-bowling consultant and a franchise teammate, and the yorker that finished Sri Lanka's innings at Pune in the 2023 World Cup showed the work had stuck. He is a genuine tail-ender with the bat, so everything he is picked for comes with the ball, and in 2026 Akcel will ask him to do the hardest two jobs in T20 bowling: the first over and the last ones.
Farooqi's international career began in March 2021, with a T20I debut against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi, and his ODI debut followed in January 2022 against the Netherlands in Doha. He has never played Test cricket. The tournament that made his name was the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the United States: 17 wickets in eight matches as Afghanistan reached the semi-finals for the first time, with best figures of five for nine against Uganda and a place in the ICC's Team of the Tournament. A year earlier, at the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, his four for 34 against Sri Lanka at Pune — still his best ODI figures — won him Player of the Match in a seven-wicket win. As of 5 November 2026 he had played 46 one-day internationals, taking 58 wickets, and 59 T20 internationals, taking 70 wickets, with 202 wickets in 162 T20 matches overall.
In the Indian Premier League he has played for two sides. Sunrisers Hyderabad bought him for ₹50 lakh at the 2022 mega auction; he played three matches in 2022 and four in 2023, taking six wickets in all, then spent the whole of 2024 on the bench without a game. Released by Hyderabad, he was bought by Rajasthan Royals for ₹2 crore at the 2025 mega auction and played five matches without taking a wicket. Across his IPL career: 12 matches, six wickets, best figures of two for 32. Before his first IPL contract he had been a net bowler for Kings XI Punjab in 2020 and Chennai Super Kings in 2021.
Away from the IPL his strongest franchise record is in the ILT20 with MI Emirates: 12 wickets in the first season, 17 in eight matches as the side won the title in Season 2, and 21 in 11 matches with the White Belt in Season 3. His other stops have been shorter and, in one case, unhappy: four matches and five wickets for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash in 2022–23, before his contract was terminated in December 2022 after a Cricket Australia investigation, the details of which were not made public. He has also played for Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League in 2023, Manchester Originals in The Hundred in 2024, St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League in 2025, and signed for Colombo Stars in the Lanka Premier League, Minister Dhaka in the Bangladesh Premier League and Nottinghamshire in the T20 Blast. He has never played in the SA20.
Akcel United Kabul. The side took him in the first Diamond round at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, at the Diamond price of US$65,000. He plays under captain Azmatullah Omarzai, with Shane McDermott as head coach, in a 19-player squad. The season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE.
He was named in Nangarhar Leopards' squad for the first season in 2018 but did not play a match. His Twenty20 debut came more than a year later, for Boost Defenders in the Shpageeza Cricket League in October 2019. His first APL match will come in 2026, eight years after his name first appeared on a squad list.
He took 17 wickets in eight matches, the joint-highest total of the tournament alongside India's Arshdeep Singh, as Afghanistan reached the semi-finals for the first time. His best figures were five for nine against Uganda, and he was named in the ICC's Team of the Tournament.
Sunrisers Hyderabad from 2022 to 2024 and Rajasthan Royals in 2025. He played seven matches for Hyderabad, taking six wickets, and spent the whole of 2024 on the bench. He played five matches for Rajasthan without taking a wicket. Across his IPL career he has 12 matches, six wickets and best figures of two for 32. He has never played for Mumbai Indians.
He is a left-arm fast-medium bowler who swings the new ball both ways, and he is Afghanistan's first-choice bowler with the new ball. Ten of his 17 wickets at the 2024 T20 World Cup came in the powerplay. He has also worked on his death bowling with Dwayne Bravo, Afghanistan's former fast-bowling consultant.
