Sikandar Raza

Sikandar is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer. He emigrated to Zimbabwe in 2002 along with his family. He became one of the best batsmen in the domestic competition and caught the attention of the selectors. The only problem was citizenship issues, which was resolved in 2011.

Early life:
Raza was born in Sialkot to a Punjabi speaking Kashmiri family. He studied at the Pakistan Air Force Public School Lower Topa for 3 years and wanted to be an Air Force pilot. But he failed a vision test that was mandatory for selection in the Pakistan air force at that time.

He went to Scotland, where he pursued a bachelor’s degree in software engineering at the Glasgow Caledonian University. Here, Raza played semi-professional cricket & realised his potential.

Domestic Career:

• First class debut: on 12 April 2007 for Northerns against Easterns during the 2007 Logan Cup
• List A debut: in 2007 for Northerns but later switched to play for Mashonaland Eagles
• Twenty20 debut: for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers
• IPL debut: for Punjab Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders on 1 April 2023. He scored 16 off 13 balls and taking the figures of 1-25 from 3 overs

He had a fine performance at the Masvingo Sports Club, where his opening stand of 161 with Chamu Chibhabha (by bludgeoning the Matabeleland Tuskers bowlers) led the foundation for a massive Southern Rocks victory. This made the Zimbabwean selectors select Raza for the training squad for the Australia A and South Africa A tri-series.

International Career:

• ODI debut: for Zimbabwe in May 2013 against Bangladesh and scored only three runs batting at number three.
• Test debut: on 3 September 2013 and scored 60 runs on his debut against Pakistan at Harare Sports Club.
• T20I debut: on 5 November 2013 against Bangladesh.

Major Achievements:

• In the Metbank Pro40 Championship Final in 2010, Raza scored a brilliant 44 for Southern Rocks as they cruised to the title against Mid West Rhinos. It was his first big performance that caught the selectorial eye.
• In January 2011, he achieved his career best List-A score of 80 runs.
• On 15 April 2023, he claimed his maiden IPL half-century, scoring 57 runs of 41 balls helping his team to defeat Lucknow Super Giants by 2 wickets. With this, he also became the first Zimbabwean player to score a half-century in IPL.
• He became the first non-residential player to represent Zimbabwe at international level.
• Sikandar is the youngest person to hit a fifty in T20I, when he was just above 17 years.
• He scored his maiden ODI century against Afghanistan in July 2014, while opening the batting, helping Zimbabwe win against Afghanistan by eight wickets.
• He also set the record for the highest individual score by a Zimbabwe batsman in an ODI run chase as well as a successful ODI run chase with 141.
• During the run chase, he along with Hamilton Masakadza set the highest partnership for any wicket for Zimbabwe in their ODI history as the duo added 224 runs for the opening wicket which made the run chase look so easy.