Shamim Hossain (Bangladesh) 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.
Shamim Hossain 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 26-year-old left-handed middle-order batter from Bangladesh with 52 T20I caps
behind him, a World Cup winner's medal from his Under-19 days, and a habit of
finishing games from nowhere. Akcel are captained by Azmatullah Omarzai and
coached by Shane McDermott, with Nikhil Chopra as mentor, and Shamim gives them
something the squad has been short of — a specialist finisher who also bowls
off spin and fields brilliantly.
Shamim 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
18 at the time, a year past his first-class debut and with no international
cricket behind him. The 2026 clubs are new sides and inherit nothing from the
2018 clubs, so Shamim 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 late-innings firepower. Shamim's best work comes
when the asking rate climbs: an unbeaten 31 off 15 balls to win a T20I series
in Zimbabwe on debut, 35 not out off 17 to seal a series in the West Indies,
and 81 not out off 43 for Dhaka Capitals in the Bangladesh Premier League,
54 of those runs coming off his last 17 balls. He has played 52 T20Is and
seven ODIs for Bangladesh, won the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, and in October
2026 began his first overseas league stint with Lumbini Lions in the Nepal
Premier League.
APL career stats
Shamim 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.
Twenty20 International · 25 July 2021 · Harare Sports Club, Harare
Two days after a 29 off 13 balls on debut, Shamim walked in with Bangladesh
chasing 193 in the third T20I and finished the job himself: 31 not out off
15 balls, hitting the winning runs with four balls to spare. Bangladesh took the
series 2–1, and a 20-year-old who had been picked for his finishing had
delivered exactly that in his first week of international cricket.
Why it mattered: the innings that made his reputation — a
debut series decided by the new boy, at the death, in a chase.
51 vs Ireland
Twenty20 International · 31 March 2023 · Chattogram
After more than a year out of the national side, Shamim returned against
Ireland and made his maiden T20I fifty: 51 off 42 balls in the third T20I
at Chattogram. It was the first half-century of his international career in
any format, and it came in the series where he forced his way back into
Bangladesh's plans — five months later he would make his ODI debut at the
Asia Cup.
Why it mattered: the comeback innings — proof that the
finisher from the Zimbabwe series had grown into a proper international
batter.
35 not out vs West Indies
Twenty20 International · 17 December 2024 · Arnos Vale, Kingstown, St Vincent
Bangladesh were 88 for 7 and heading nowhere when Shamim walked in during
the second T20I. He smashed an unbeaten 35 off 17 balls — two fours, two
sixes, at a strike rate of 205.88 — in an unbroken 41-run stand with Tanzim
Hasan Sakib, lifting Bangladesh to 129 for 7. The bowlers then defended it:
West Indies were bowled out for 102, Bangladesh won by 27 runs, and Shamim
was Player of the Match as the series was sealed with a game to spare.
Why it mattered: Bangladesh's first T20I series win in the
West Indies since 2018, won by a 17-ball cameo from No. 8.
42 not out vs Sri Lanka
Asia Cup 2025 · 13 September 2025 · Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Bangladesh were 53 for 5 inside ten overs against Sri Lanka in their Asia
Cup group match when Shamim joined Jaker Ali. The pair added 85 runs for
the sixth wicket, Shamim finishing unbeaten on 42 off 34 balls, and
Bangladesh reached 139 for 5. Sri Lanka won the match by six wickets, but
the rescue gave Bangladesh a total to bowl at — and a week later, in the
Super Four rematch in Dubai, Shamim's 14 not out off 12 helped seal a
four-wicket win with a ball to spare.
Why it mattered: the innings that showed his value beyond
the slog — rebuilding a broken innings at a major tournament, then
finishing the next one.
81 not out for Dhaka Capitals vs Sylhet Titans
Bangladesh Premier League 2025–26 · Sylhet
Chasing for Dhaka Capitals against Sylhet Titans, Shamim played a lone
hand: 81 not out off 43 balls, his best score in T20 cricket. He was 37
off 27 balls at one stage, then plundered 54 off his next 17 deliveries —
including 27 off the final over against Mohammad Amir, with a flick over
fine leg, a reverse scoop over third man and a smash through mid-on. Dhaka
still fell six runs short, but the innings was the talk of the tournament.
Why it mattered: his career-best T20 score, made against
one of the great death bowlers, in the final over — the perfect audition
for a finisher's role.
Playing style and strengths
Shamim is a finisher, in the truest sense of the word. A left-handed
middle-order batter, he does his best work when the asking rate is climbing
and the field is spread: bat speed, clean hitting through the leg side, and a
taste for the unconventional — the reverse scoop over third man that took 27
off Mohammad Amir's final over in the BPL is the shot in miniature. His
numbers tell the same story: a T20I strike rate of 122.73 across 52 matches
is modest, but his best innings are all late ones — 31 not out off 15 to win
a series in Harare, 35 not out off 17 to seal one in Kingstown, 81 not out
off 43 to nearly steal one in Sylhet. He accelerates rather than builds: in
that Sylhet innings he was 37 off 27 balls, then scored 54 off his next 17.
With the ball he is a part-time right-arm off-break bowler, used in short
bursts rather than as a stock option — two wickets in 52 T20Is, with a best
of one for 10 against Sri Lanka in July 2025. His third skill is the one
coaches notice first: he is a brilliant fielder, quick across the ground
with a strong arm, and his run-out of India's Dhruv Jurel in the 2020
Under-19 World Cup final was one of the moments of that match. For Akcel,
the package is a lower-middle-order hitter who can close out a chase, a few
overs of off spin when the match-up suits, and one of the liveliest fielders
in the draft pool.
Records and milestones
ICC Under-19 World Cup winner 2020, South Africa — Bangladesh's first global title at any level; final vs India, Potchefstroom, 9 February 2020 (7 off 18, 0/36 off 6 overs, ran out Dhruv Jurel for 22).
First Bangladeshi to hit a six off the first ball faced on ODI debut — and the sixth batter ever — 3 September 2023 vs Afghanistan, Lahore (Asia Cup, off Gulbadin Naib).
T20I debut series, July 2021: 29 off 13 on debut (23 July), then 31 not out off 15 (25 July) to seal a 2–1 series win over Zimbabwe in Harare.
Maiden T20I fifty: 51 off 42 vs Ireland, Chattogram, 31 March 2023.
35 not out off 17 vs West Indies, Arnos Vale, Kingstown, 17 December 2024 — Player of the Match in the series-clinching win, Bangladesh's first T20I series win in the West Indies since 2018.
Asia Cup 2025: 42 not out off 34 vs Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, 13 September 2025 (85-run stand with Jaker Ali from 53/5); 14 not out off 12 in the Super Four win over Sri Lanka, Dubai, 20 September 2025.
Named in Bangladesh's 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 (January 2026) — Bangladesh boycotted the tournament and were replaced by Scotland, so he played no match at the event.
T20I: 52 matches, 621 runs at 17.74, highest 51; ODI: 7 matches, 67 runs, highest 22 — as of November 2026.
List A 108 off 66 for Abahani Limited vs City Club, BKSP, 21 March 2022 — 13 fours, 4 sixes, 171-run stand with Jaker Ali (69 not out), Abahani won by 111 runs.
BPL: Chittagong Kings 2025 — 352 runs at a strike rate of about 160, taking the side to the final; Dhaka Capitals 2025–26 — career-best 81 not out off 43 vs Sylhet Titans.
Nepal Premier League 2026: Lumbini Lions — his first overseas league; opener 26 October 2026, 1 not out off 3 in a 7-wicket win over Sudurpaschim Royals.
Career outside APL
Shamim Hossain Patwary was born in Chandpur, Bangladesh, on 2 September
2000. Cricket caught his attention through his cousins, and his uncle Anowar
helped him join the Chandpur Clemon Cricket Academy; from there he moved to
BKSP, Bangladesh's national sports institute. At 17 he scored 226 off 286
balls for BKSP against a West Bengal Under-17 side, the innings that put him
on the national selectors' radar. His first-class debut followed for
Chittagong Division in the National Cricket League on 15 September 2017,
when he was 17 years and 13 days old; his T20 debut came for BKSP on 25
February 2019, and his List A debut on 8 March 2019, when he made 71 off 96
balls against Brothers Union.
The Under-19 World Cup made him. He was in the preliminary squad for the
2018 edition but did not make the XI; two years later, in South Africa, he
was a key member of the side that won Bangladesh's first global title at any
level. In the final against India at Potchefstroom on 9 February 2020 he
made 7 off 18, bowled six overs for 36, and ran out Dhruv Jurel for 22 as
India collapsed from a strong position; Bangladesh won by three wickets on
the Duckworth-Lewis method, with captain Akbar Ali unbeaten on 43. His only
List A hundred so far came two years later — 108 off 66 balls for Abahani
Limited against City Club at BKSP on 21 March 2022, with 13 fours and four
sixes in a 111-run win.
The senior call came in June 2021, for the T20I series in Zimbabwe, and he
announced himself at once: 29 off 13 balls on debut on 23 July, then 31 not
out off 15 two days later to seal the series 2–1. He was in Bangladesh's
squad for the T20 World Cup later that year and played two matches, scoring
30 runs, but the spark faded — he played no international cricket at all in
2022. The comeback came in March 2023, with a maiden T20I fifty (51 off 42)
against Ireland at Chattogram, and that August he was named in the Asia Cup
squad. His ODI debut followed on 3 September 2023 against Afghanistan in
Lahore, where he hit a six off the very first ball he faced — the first
Bangladeshi ever to do so on ODI debut, and only the sixth batter in history.
Since then he has been a white-ball squad regular without ever quite
nailing down a permanent place. In 2024 he played just three T20Is, all
against West Indies in December, but made one of them count — 35 not out
off 17 balls at Kingstown, Player of the Match in the series-clinching win.
In 2025 he played 25 T20Is, including the Asia Cup in the UAE, where his
42 not out against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi and 14 not out in the Super Four
rematch in Dubai were two of his best innings of the year. A lean run
followed — three ducks and two scores of one in six T20I innings — and he
was left out of the Ireland series in November 2025 until captain Litton
Das publicly backed him; he was added for the final match and did not bat.
The response came in franchise cricket. For Chittagong Kings in the 2025
BPL he scored 352 runs at a strike rate of about 160 and helped take the
side to the final, and for Dhaka Capitals in the 2025–26 season he made a
career-best 81 not out off 43 balls against Sylhet Titans, taking 27 off
the final over from Mohammad Amir. He was named in Bangladesh's squad for
the 2026 T20 World Cup in January 2026, but Bangladesh boycotted the
tournament and Scotland took their place. His last T20I came against New
Zealand on 2 May 2026. In October 2026 he joined Lumbini Lions for the
Nepal Premier League — his first overseas league — and was unbeaten on 1
off 3 balls as the defending champions won their opener against
Sudurpaschim Royals. The APL is his next stop — a first season in
Afghanistan's league, at 26, for Akcel United Kabul.
Which team does Shamim Hossain play for in APL 2026?
Shamim Hossain 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 Shamim Hossain play in the first APL season in 2018?
No. Shamim Hossain did not play the inaugural 2018 season — his name appears in none of the five squads published for that tournament. He was 18 at the time, a year past his first-class debut and with no international cricket behind him. APL 2026 is his first season in the competition, and his first for Akcel United Kabul.
Has Shamim Hossain played in a World Cup?
Yes, twice at youth and senior level. He was part of Bangladesh's squad that won the ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa in 2020, the country's first global title, and he played two matches at the T20 World Cup in 2021. He was named in Bangladesh's squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup, but Bangladesh boycotted the tournament and were replaced by Scotland, so he played no match there.
What is Shamim Hossain's highest score in T20I cricket?
51 off 42 balls against Ireland at Chattogram on 31 March 2023, his maiden T20I fifty. It came in his comeback series after more than a year out of the side, and it remains his only T20I half-century in 52 matches. His best score in all T20 cricket is 81 not out off 43 balls, made for Dhaka Capitals against Sylhet Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League.
What kind of player is Shamim Hossain?
A left-handed middle-order batter who bowls right-arm off break and fields brilliantly — a finisher by trade. He made his name with Bangladesh's Under-19 World Cup winners in 2020, then announced himself in senior cricket with 29 off 13 balls on his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in July 2021. He now plays franchise cricket too, turning out for Lumbini Lions in the Nepal Premier League in 2026.
