New Delhi. In cricket, the uncle-nephew duo has shone at the top level many times, including Graham and Shaun Pollock of South Africa, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Imam-ul-Haq of Pakistan, Javed Miandad and Faisal Iqbal and Phil Simmons and Lendl Simmons of West Indies. In Indian cricket, after Wasim Jaffer represented the country at the international level, his nephew Armaan Jaffer also played first class cricket for Mumbai. These are examples when the nephew made his debut in cricket years after his uncle played top level cricket and shone. There is a case in international cricket when an uncle and nephew played together in Tests. The surprising thing was that the nephew’s Test career started before his uncle. In this match, after giving the Test debut cap to his uncle, the nephew started the innings with him and made a century partnership.
This pair is of Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran and his uncle Noor Ali Zadran. Uncle Noor Ali had made his international debut in ODI in April 2009, but till then Afghanistan (Afghanistan cricket team) did not have Test status. Afghanistan played its first Test in the year 2018. Noor played his first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo in February 2024, 15 years after his international debut. His nephew Ibrahim was also included in this Afghanistan team, who had become his uncle’s ‘senior’ in the Test format by making his debut in September 2019. This moment was memorable for the uncle-nephew duo. In the match, Ibrahim gave the Test cap to uncle Noor.
Played a partnership of 106 runs for the first wicket
Ibrahim and Noor started the Afghanistan innings in the test. In the first innings, nephew Ibrahim Zadran got out without opening the account while uncle Noor scored 31 runs. Ibrahim made up for the failure in the first innings by scoring a century in the second innings. The uncle-nephew duo shared a 106-run partnership during this period. During this, Noor scored 47 runs with the help of five fours and Ibrahim Zadran scored 114 runs with the help of 12 fours. However, despite this performance, the Afghan team had to face a 10-wicket defeat in the match. Let us tell you, there is an age difference of about 13 years between Ibrahim and Noor.
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This uncle-nephew duo also played together in the Tolerance Test against Ireland in March 2024. Both opened in this test as well. In the first innings, Ibrahim contributed 52 and Noor 7 runs, while in the second innings, Ibrahim scored 12 and Noor scored 32 runs. After this test against Ireland, Noor announced his retirement from international cricket. In a 15-year international career, Noor got to play only 2 Tests, 51 ODIs and 23 T20Is. In Test cricket, he scored 117 runs at an average of 29.25, 1216 (one century) in ODIs at an average of 24.81 and 597 runs (four half-centuries) in T20Is at an average of 27.13.
Nephew Ibrahim is one of the best batsmen in Afghanistan
On the other hand, Noor’s 22-year-old nephew Ibrahim is counted among the best batsmen of Afghanistan at present. So far he has played seven Tests, 33 ODIs and 44 T20Is. He has scored 541 runs (one century) at an average of 38.64 in Test cricket, 1440 runs (five centuries) at an average of 48.00 in ODIs and 1105 runs (8 half-centuries) at an average of 29.07 in T20Is. Ibrahim has also captained the Afghanistan team in 9 T20 matches. After the World Cup 2023, Rashid Khan was not available for the team due to back surgery. In his absence, Ibrahim led the Afghan team in the Test series against UAE, India and Sri Lanka.
In the recently concluded T20 World Cup, Ibrahim scored 231 runs in 8 matches at an average of 28.87 and became the highest run scorer from Afghanistan after Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Not only this, Ibrahim’s bat also performed well in the ODI World Cup held in India last year and he scored 376 runs in 9 matches at an average of 47. He was the top scorer for Zimbabwe in the tournament.
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Uncle and nephew have also played test together
There has been an occasion in Test cricket when the pair of uncle and nephew have played Test together. The special thing is that this pair is also from Afghanistan. In the Test against Ireland in Dehradun in March 2019, Asghar Afghan and wrist spinner Waqar Salamkheil were part of Afghanistan’s playing eleven. Asghar Afghan was the captain of the Afghanistan team in this Test, under whose leadership nephew Waqar made his Test debut. Waqar took 2-2 wickets in both innings of the debut Test. It is worth noting that Asghar Afghan’s original name was Asghar Stanikzai. To give a glimpse of Afghani identity in his name itself, he changed his name to ‘Asghar Afghan’.
Tags: Afghanistan Cricket, Test cricket
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 15, 2024, 08:15 IST