Ikram Alikhil is a 26-year-old Afghan wicket-keeper batter who joins Nangarhar Cosmic for APL T20 2026 as their fourth Gold pick from the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for a reported US$40,000.
Born
29 September 2000, Kabul, Afghanistan
Role
Wicket-keeper batter
Batting
Left-hand bat
International debut
ODI, 2 March 2019 vs Ireland
86
Highest ODI score, vs West Indies, Headingley 2019
Ikram Alikhil is one of the few players in the 2026 squads who was there the first
time round. He kept wicket for Balkh Legends in the inaugural APL season in Sharjah
in October 2018, playing all nine matches as the champions' first-choice keeper
while Kamran Akmal sat on the bench. His batting barely got a look in — he faced
only 37 balls in the whole tournament, scoring 25 runs in six innings and finishing
unbeaten in four of them — but he was behind the stumps for every ball of a title
run, including the final against Kabul Zwanan on 21 October 2018, when his 9 off
16 helped Balkh chase 133 to win by four wickets. It was a keeper's tournament,
not a batter's one, and he did the quiet part of the job without fuss.
Eight years later he returns to the league as a very different cricketer: a
26-year-old with two World Cups behind him, three Tests, and the vice-captaincy
of Afghanistan's Test side. Nangarhar Cosmic took him as their fourth pick of the
Gold round at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for a reported US$40,000,
to a side captained by Rahmat Shah, coached by Toby Radford and mentored by Mark
Boucher. The season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE, with the fixture list
still to be confirmed.
For Nangarhar, the signing fills the most specialised slot in the side. Rahmat
Shah's team already has Alex Hales' power at the top and Kamindu Mendis' calm in
the middle order; what it needed was a keeper who can bat in the lower middle
order and finish an innings, and who has kept to Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
and the rest of Afghanistan's spin attack for years. Alikhil has done exactly
that at international level, and he arrives in form — a Test return against
Bangladesh in October 2026 in which he made 32 and 33 and took three catches,
followed by a place in the XI for the first Test against Zimbabwe at Sharjah in
November. At 26, with his best years still ahead of him, he is the kind of
signing that steadies a new franchise rather than dazzling it.
APL career stats
The 2018 figures below were recounted from the nine Balkh Legends scorecards of
that season — every match, every innings. Alikhil batted in six of the nine
games and was not out in four of them, so his average of 12.50 comes from only
two dismissals in 25 runs. He did not bowl in the tournament. The 2026 season
has not started, so those rows will fill in once the first ball is bowled on
27 December 2026.
86 vs West Indies — an 18-year-old announces himself
ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 · Headingley, Leeds · 4 July 2019
Alikhil was not even in Afghanistan's original World Cup squad. He was flown in
on 6 June 2019 as an SOS replacement for Mohammad Shahzad, who had injured his
knee, and in Afghanistan's last game of the tournament he walked in during the
second over with the captain already gone. What followed was 86 off 93 balls,
with eight fours, and a 133-run second-wicket stand with Rahmat Shah, who made
62. He was eventually leg-before to Chris Gayle, 14 runs short of a hundred,
and Afghanistan fell 23 runs short chasing 312 — but the innings made him the
highest scorer by an 18-year-old at a Men's World Cup, and the third-youngest
player to record a World Cup fifty. He had already caught Gayle for 7 and run
out Nicholas Pooran for 58 in the same match.
Why it mattered: a teenager called up as a replacement, batting
in a chase that was falling apart, produced the innings of Afghanistan's
tournament — and a record that still stands.
58 vs England — part of a famous upset
ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 · Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi · 15 October 2023
Recalled for this match — Rahmanullah Gurbaz had kept wicket for the first two
games — Alikhil made 58 off 66 balls as Afghanistan posted 284 against the
defending champions. He was hit on the shoulder by a 147 km/h ball from Mark
Wood and carried on, and behind the stumps he caught Harry Brook off Mujeeb Ur
Rahman as England slid to 169 for 8. England were bowled out for 215, and
Afghanistan won by 69 runs in one of the great World Cup upsets, their first
ever win over England in a one-day international.
Why it mattered: a fifty and a key catch in the win that
announced Afghanistan as a genuine World Cup force — and proof that Alikhil
belongs on the biggest stage.
107 not out vs Pakistan Under-19 — a final won almost single-handedly
ACC Under-19 Asia Cup final · Kinrara Academy Oval, Kuala Lumpur · 19 November 2017
Long before the senior caps, Alikhil won Afghanistan a trophy. In the final of
the Under-19 Asia Cup he made an unbeaten 107 off 113 balls, with ten fours
and two sixes, as Afghanistan posted 248 for 7 against Pakistan. Mujeeb Ur
Rahman then took 5 for 13 and Pakistan were bowled out for 63, beaten by 185
runs. Alikhil was named player of the match, and Afghanistan lifted their
first ACC Under-19 Asia Cup title.
Why it mattered: the innings that first marked him out as a
big-match player — a hundred in a final, against Pakistan, at 17.
32 and 33 vs Bangladesh — a Test return after two years
Only Test · Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi · 9–13 October 2026
Alikhil had not played a Test since February 2024, against Sri Lanka at
Colombo. His return came in the one-off Test against Bangladesh at Abu Dhabi,
where he made 32 off 103 balls in the first innings and 33 off 69 in the
second, the latter in a 66-run stand with Sediqullah Atal, and took three
catches behind the stumps. The match was drawn, but the performance — two
patient innings and tidy keeping across five days — confirmed what the
selectors had decided a week earlier, when they named him vice-captain of
the Test side under Rahmat Shah.
Why it mattered: a two-year wait ended with a proper Test
cricketer's performance — and the vice-captaincy that came with it.
9 in the APL final — a champion's quiet contribution
APL 2018 final · Sharjah Cricket Stadium · 21 October 2018
The numbers look small: 9 off 16 balls, bowled by Fareed Ahmad, as Balkh
Legends chased 133 to beat Kabul Zwanan by four wickets. But the context is
the point. Alikhil was 18, keeping wicket in a final in front of a Sharjah
crowd, in a side full of overseas stars — Chris Gayle, Colin Munro, Ravi
Bopara, Mohammad Nabi — and he was the youngest Afghan in the XI. His 9 was
part of the chase that won Balkh the inaugural APL title, the ninth and last
match of a tournament in which he had kept wicket in every game.
Why it mattered: a title in his first APL season, earned as
the champions' keeper — the start of the story he resumes in 2026.
Playing style and strengths
Alikhil is a left-hand middle-order batter who values time at the crease over
flourish. His best innings share a shape: he arrives early, often after a
top-order failure, steadies the innings with soft hands and good judgement of
length, and then expands once he is set. The 86 at Headingley was built that
way — 93 balls, eight fours, no sixes — and so was the 58 against England four
years later. He is at his best against spin, working the ball into gaps and
using the sweep, and he has the temperament for a chase: both of his great
World Cup innings came with Afghanistan batting second under pressure. His
domestic record backs the style up — a first-class average above 40 with four
hundreds and a best of 142, and a List A hundred to his name.
Behind the stumps he is tidy rather than spectacular, which is exactly what a
captain wants from a keeper who has to stand up to Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur
Rahman. His international keeping figures — eight catches and a stumping in
three Tests, 23 catches and five stumpings in 32 ODIs — were earned across
seven years of intermittent selection, often as the second keeper in the squad
behind Rahmanullah Gurbaz. What sets him apart is the way he has handled that
role: called up as an injury replacement in 2019, he produced a record innings;
dropped for long stretches, he returned in 2026 and took the Test
vice-captaincy. Coaches who have worked with him talk about the same thing
Cricbuzz noted in his profile — a young keeper thrust into international
cricket suddenly, who kept his head and made the chance count.
Records and milestones
ODI debut on 2 March 2019 vs Ireland at Dehradun; Test debut on 15 March 2019 vs Ireland at Dehradun.
107 not out vs Pakistan Under-19 in the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup final at Kuala Lumpur on 19 November 2017 — player of the match as Afghanistan won their first title in the competition, by 185 runs.
86 vs West Indies at Headingley on 4 July 2019 — the highest score by an 18-year-old at a Men's World Cup (18 years, 278 days), and the third-youngest player to record a World Cup fifty.
231 runs in 14 World Cup matches at 33.00, with two fifties, across the 2019 and 2023 tournaments.
58 vs England at Delhi on 15 October 2023, in Afghanistan's first ever ODI win over England — a 69-run victory at the 2023 World Cup.
First-class best of 142, with four hundreds and seven fifties in 32 matches at 42.05; List A best of 100, with one hundred and nine fifties in 84 matches.
Domestic T20 best of 51, with 476 runs in 53 matches at 17.63.
APL champion with Balkh Legends in 2018 — kept wicket in all nine matches of the title run, aged 18.
Named Afghanistan's Test vice-captain (and wicket-keeper) by the Afghanistan Cricket Board on 1 October 2026, under captain Rahmat Shah.
32 and 33, with three catches, on his Test return against Bangladesh at Abu Dhabi in October 2026 — his first Test in over two years.
Gold pick for Nangarhar Cosmic in 2026 — the Cosmic's fourth Gold selection, for a reported US$40,000; his second APL campaign, eight years after his first.
Career outside APL
Ikram Alikhil was born in Kabul on 29 September 2000, and his first taste of the
wider cricket world came as a teenager. He captained nothing and needed no
introduction: at the 2017 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur he made an
unbeaten 107 in the final against Pakistan, and a month later he was
Afghanistan's wicket-keeper at the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, where he
made 46 against Pakistan at Whangarei in a five-wicket win and Afghanistan
finished fourth. His domestic debuts followed in quick succession — Twenty20
for Band-e-Amir Dragons in the Shpageeza Cricket League on 14 September 2017,
first-class for Speen Ghar Region on 1 March 2018, and List A for Speen Ghar
Region on 10 July 2018.
International cricket arrived suddenly, in the way it often does for keepers.
Mohammad Shahzad's exit from the side saw Alikhil handed an ODI debut against
Ireland at Dehradun on 2 March 2019, and a Test debut against the same
opposition at the same ground thirteen days later. Three months after that he
was on a plane to England as Shahzad's injury replacement for the 2019 World
Cup, and his 86 against West Indies at Headingley became the highest score by
an 18-year-old at a Men's World Cup. At the 2023 World Cup he was recalled for
the England game at Delhi and made 58 in Afghanistan's famous 69-run win. In
between, his Test career moved slowly — a second Test against Sri Lanka at
Colombo in February 2024, where he made 21 and 1 — and his one-day career
settled into the role of second keeper, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz usually taking
the gloves.
The autumn of 2026 changed that. On 1 October the Afghanistan Cricket Board
named him vice-captain and wicket-keeper of the Test squad for the series
against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, under Rahmat Shah. A week later he played the
one-off Test against Bangladesh at Abu Dhabi, making 32 and 33 and taking three
catches in a drawn match, and in November he took his place in the XI for the
first Test against Zimbabwe at Sharjah. That match was still in progress as
this page was written — Zimbabwe had reached 485 for 8 in their first innings
on the second day, and Alikhil had already taken two catches, holding Antum
Naqvi off Zia-ur-Rehman for 9 and Wessly Madhevere off Ziaur Rahman Sharifi
for 54. The figures on this page are dated to the last completed Test, against
Bangladesh, and will be updated once the Zimbabwe series finishes.
At home he has been a Shpageeza regular for Speen Ghar Tigers, scoring 107 runs
in the 2025 edition and 76 in the 2026 edition, when he made 9 off 12 in the
final against Amo Sharks. His domestic sides also include Speen Ghar Region,
Band-e-Amir Region and Dragons, Amo Region and Sharks, Maiwand Defenders,
Pamir Legends, Hindukush Strikers, Band-e Amir Stars and Bangla Tigers. He does
not bowl — a single over in first-class cricket is the exception that proves
the rule — and his value has always been the gloves and the lower middle
order.
The career figures, current to October 2026, stand at three Tests with 94 runs
at 18.80 and a highest score of 33, and 32 ODIs with 386 runs at 21.44, three
fifties and a highest score of 86. A handful of databases credit him with a
33rd ODI, but the innings and the runs are identical in every source, and the
difference is a match in which he was named in the squad but did not take the
field — he was benched throughout the ODI tri-series in October 2026. In
domestic cricket he has 1,682 first-class runs at 42.05 with four hundreds,
1,607 List A runs at 29.22 with one hundred, and 476 domestic T20 runs at
17.63 with a best of 51. He has not played a T20I. He arrives at the APL as a
26-year-old who has already played two World Cups, kept wicket in a title
win, and just been handed the vice-captaincy of his country's Test side — a
keeper-batter whose best years, by every measure, are still ahead of him.
Which team does Ikram Alikhil play for in APL 2026?
Ikram Alikhil plays for Nangarhar Cosmic in APL T20 2026. He was the Cosmic's fourth pick of the Gold round at the player draft in Dubai on 3 November 2026, for a reported US$40,000. Nangarhar are captained by Rahmat Shah, coached by Toby Radford and mentored by Mark Boucher, and the season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE.
Did Ikram Alikhil play in the first APL season in 2018?
Yes. Ikram Alikhil kept wicket for Balkh Legends in the first APL season in Sharjah in October 2018, playing all nine matches as the champions' first-choice keeper. He scored 25 runs in six innings, unbeaten in four of them, with a highest score of 9 in the final against Kabul Zwanan. The 2026 season is his second APL campaign, eight years later, this time with Nangarhar Cosmic.
What is Ikram Alikhil's best international innings?
His 86 against West Indies at Headingley in the 2019 World Cup. Called into the squad as an injury replacement for Mohammad Shahzad, the 18-year-old came in during the second over and made 86 off 93 balls, sharing a 133-run stand with Rahmat Shah. It remains the highest score by an 18-year-old at a Men's World Cup, and he was 14 runs short of becoming the youngest centurion in the tournament's history.
Is Ikram Alikhil Afghanistan's Test vice-captain?
Yes. The Afghanistan Cricket Board named him vice-captain and wicket-keeper for the Test squad against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe on 1 October 2026, with Rahmat Shah as captain. He played the one-off Test against Bangladesh at Abu Dhabi in October 2026, scoring 32 and 33, and he is in the XI for the first Test against Zimbabwe at Sharjah in November 2026.
What are Ikram Alikhil's international numbers?
In three Tests he has scored 94 runs at 18.80, with a highest score of 33 against Bangladesh in October 2026, and he has taken eight catches and one stumping. In 32 ODIs he has 386 runs at 21.44, with a highest score of 86 against West Indies at the 2019 World Cup and three fifties. He has not played a T20I.
