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PakistanAll-rounder
Shadab Khan
- Age
- 28y 25d
- Bats
- Right-hand
- Bowls
- Right-arm leg break
- From
- Mianwali
- Age
- 28y 25d
- Bats
- Right-hand
- Bowls
- Right-arm leg break
- From
- Mianwali
Shadab Khan is a leg-spinning cricketer from Mianwali, where he was born in 1998. The district is also the home of Imran Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq. When he was 12, his family moved to Rawalpindi, and it was in school cricket there that he first learned the finer points of the game. His development sped up at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, where he picked up advice from two celebrated leg-spinners of the past, Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed. He names Shane Warne as his cricketing idol.
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His first major stage was the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. Shadab finished as the leading wicket-taker of the event, claiming 11 wickets in 6 matches at an average of 19, and his googly in particular caught the eye at youth level.
As a bowler, he gives the ball more air than many short-format spinners, relying on flight and cunning rather than flat pace. He also varies his position on the crease, delivering from tight to the stumps or from wide out so that batsmen must keep adjusting their line of sight. Away from bowling, he keeps himself very fit and is a sharp fielder at point. Islamabad United, the defending champions, picked him for the second season of the Pakistan Super League, and he took 9 wickets in 8 matches.
Pakistan handed him a T20I debut against the West Indies in March 2017. He returned figures of 4-0-7-3, earning the Man of the Match award and setting the mark for the most economical spell by a debutant in the format. By the end of his first 10 T20Is he had collected 3 such awards. In ODIs he has also won a Man of the Match award, against Sri Lanka, when he took three wickets and then made a calm half-century to help Pakistan through a tense run chase.
Shadab was a member of the Pakistan squad that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in England. He has also played Test cricket, making his debut against the West Indies and taking a single wicket in that match.
