Sikandar Raza - Zimbabwe - Batting Allrounder

Born in Sialkot, Pakistan, Sikandar Raza's dream of being a fighter pilot ended prematurely when he failed in his eye examination. Nursing the dream from a tender age of 11, it was not easy for Raza to see his dream being shattered in such a way.

Determined to succeed in his life, Raza got admitted to the Glasgow Caledonian University and moved to Zimbabwe, where his parents had resided since 2002. He began playing cricket as a semi-professional and made his First-Class debut in 2007 for the Northerns. After Zimbabwe's cricket structure was revamped in 2009, he went on to play First-Class cricket for the Mashonaland Eagles.

After completing his studies, he returned to full-time cricket in the 2010-11 season. He had a decent season, scoring 625 runs at an average of 41. He made his Twenty20 debut for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers. He turned out to be a T20 specialist, and he was the leading run-scorer in the 2010 Stanbic Bank 20 Competition.

It did not take long for the selectors to recognise his talent and was selected to play in a practice match against Bangladesh when Vusi Sibanda was injured. He did well and Zimbabwe cricket expedited the process of granting him citizenship status. He was named in the preliminary squad for Zimbabwe's 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign, but did not make it to the final squad. He was granted citizenship status in late 2011.

After putting up consistent performances for the next two years, Raza was awarded with the ODI cap in May 2013, thus fulfilling his dream of playing in Zimbabwe colours. His first game was against Bangladesh, but he was not able to do well in that match. His finest performance in the format came when he hit his first fifty and that too against India in his fourth game. His well-measured 82 against a strong Indian bowling attack helped Zimbabwe post a decent total. He also made his debut in T20Is in the series against Bangladesh.

Raza made his Test debut in September 2013 against his home country - Pakistan in the first of a two-match series after Brendan Taylor decided to sit out. He performed well, hitting a fifty in the first innings but was omitted for the second game after Taylor came back into the squad.

Raza has made most of the opportunities he has got. The tour of Bangladesh in 2014 was a very good one for him. In the three matches, Raza scored three fifties and cemented his place in the side as an opener. He has also not done badly in ODIs, even though he has scored only one hundred and one fifty so far, he has given plenty of starts. Raza was a key member of the squad that had been selected for the 2015 World Cup.

Since then, he was in and out of the side. Raza's major break came in 2017; He was one of the linchpins in Zimbabwe's first ever bilateral ODI series victory over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka where he contributed with both bat and ball. A few days later, the all-rounder followed that up by cracking his maiden Test century in the one-off Test against the same opponent. However, Zimbabwe went onto to lose the Test, Raza's 127 made the selectors sit back and notice his performance.

Raza was the Player of the Tournament in the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers, having scored 319 runs and picked 15 wickets. However, despite his best efforts Zimbabwe could not qualify for the World Cup in England due to a change in format which made it a 10 team tournament. Following this failure to qualify for the World Cup, the Zimbabwe Cricket Board took some harsh calls by dropping several senior players including Sikandar Raza.

In April 2021, Raza suffered a serious health scare with a bone marrow infection which was initially thought to be cancerous. However, fortunately that wasn’t the case and he made a full recovery, returning to competitive cricket after four months. It was as though Raza found a second wind on his comeback, and was man of the series in a remarkable home series win in ODIs and T20Is over Bangladesh.

He was also the Player of the Tournament in the T20I World Cup Qualifiers for 2022, almost single-handedly punching Zimbabwe’s ticket for Australia. Raza was one of the talismanic performers at that World Cup as well, as Zimbabwe got through the group stages and got an iconic win over Pakistan as well.

Sikandar Raza also greatly worked and improved on his bowling at this time, developing a mean carrom ball to his repertoire of variations. He also took on the responsibility of bowling at the death for Zimbabwe, embellishing his reputation as a proper all-rounder.

With this renaissance in form, Sikandar Raza became hot property for franchise teams all over the world. He was picked by Dubai Capitals in the inaugural ILT20 league, and also played an integral role for Lahore Qalandars who won the PSL in 2023. Sikandar Raza was picked by Punjab Kings for the 2023 IPL - his first opportunity in this tournament. He made a few handy contributions with the bat in the limited opportunities he got for Punjab Kings in 2023 IPL.

Raza is a man for the big occasions and Zimbabwe would be hoping that their talisman comes to the fore in the ODI World Cup Qualifiers for 2023. He is at the peak of his game and will be eager to produce something special for his country.