Azmatullah Omarzai (

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

: عظمت الله عمرزی born 24 March 2000) is an Afghan

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er from Nurgal District of Kunar province in eastern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Azmatullah started playing cricket when he was 14 years old. He won the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year award 2024. He made his international debut for the

Afghanistan cricket team The Afghanistan men's national cricket team (, ) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council with Test cricket, Test, One-Day International and T20 International status. Cricket h ...

in January 2021. He was part of the Afghan team in the

2023 Cricket World Cup The 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup was the 13th edition of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted from 5 October to 19 ...

. He was awarded the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year in the 2024 ICC Awards.

Domestic career

He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut for Mis Ainak Region in the 2017 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament on 10 August 2017. He made his first-class debut for Speen Ghar Region in the 2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament on 25 March 2018. In September 2018, he was named in Paktia's squad in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut for Paktia Panthers in the 2018–19 Afghanistan Premier League on 7 October 2018. In September 2020, he was the joint winner of the player of the tournament award in the 2020 Shpageeza Cricket League.

International career

In December 2017, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the

2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2018 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament held in New Zealand from 13 January till 3 February 2018. It was the twelfth edition of the U19 World Cup, and the third to be held in New Zealand af ...

. He was part of Afghanistan's under-23 team in the

2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the third edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Karachi, Pakistan and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Eight teams participated in the tournament including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations and ...

. In November 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the

2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the fourth edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Bangladesh between 14 and 23 November 2019. Eight teams participated in the tournament, including five under-23 age level teams of Test cricket ...

in Bangladesh. In February 2020, he was named in Afghanistan's

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) squad for their series against Ireland. In January 2021, he was named in Afghanistan's

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) squad for their series against Ireland. He made his ODI debut for Afghanistan, against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, on 21 January 2021. In March 2021, the

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; , ; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in Afghanistan. It is Afghanistan's representative at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and was an associate member ...

confirmed that he was pending selection for the T20I matches against Zimbabwe, once his visa issues had been resolved. In February 2022, he was named in Afghanistan's T20I squad for their series against Bangladesh. He made his T20I debut on 3 March 2022, for Afghanistan against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. In May 2024, he was named in Afghanistan’s squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament. In January 2025, Omarzai was named in Afghanistan's squad for the team's first-ever

ICC Champions Trophy The ICC Champions Trophy, formerly known as the ICC Knock Out Trophy, is an international One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) contested by international men's teams. Inaugurat ...

References

External links

* * https://www.cricbuzz.com/profiles/13214/azmatullah-omarzai * https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/67516/azmatullah-omarzai {{DEFAULTSORT:Omarzai, Azmatullah 2000 births Living people Afghan cricketers 21st-century Afghan sportsmen Afghanistan Test cricketers Afghanistan One Day International cricketers Afghanistan Twenty20 International cricketers Mis Ainak Knights cricketers Spin Ghar Tigers cricketers Paktia Panthers cricketers People from Kunar Province Cricketers at the 2023 Cricket World Cup MI Cape Town cricketers Gujarat Titans cricketers