Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Offspinner Mujeeb ur Rahman has followed in the footsteps of his superstar compatriot Rashid Khan, mixing up offbreaks with legspin and ripping googlies and making a splash in T20 leagues around the world.

At 16, Mujeeb was part of an Afghanistan Under-19 side that dismantled Bangladesh 3-1 away in 2017. Bowling predominantly with the new ball, he took eight wickets in the first three games of that series and 7 for 19 in the fourth, where Afghanistan successfully defended 134. The month after, he starred in a historic U-19 Asia Cup title win for Afghanistan, taking 5 for 13 as his team beat Pakistan in the final.

Early in 2018, at the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand, he took 4 for 14 to beat the home team and set up a semi-final against Australia. That week he was signed by Kings XI Punjab (for about US$630,000) for whom he took 14 wickets in that year's IPL. By the time he played that tournament, he had become the youngest to take five wickets in an ODI - against Zimbabwe in a Sharjah bilateral game that February which Afghanistan won comfortably - at the age of 16 years and 325 days. He had also helped beat West Indies with a four-wicket bag in the final of the World Cup Qualifier tournament in Harare that March, taking Afghanistan to their second World Cup; Mujeeb was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the Qualifier, with 17 wickets.

By the end of that eventful year, he was much in demand as a T20 gun for hire, having made his debuts in the T20 Blast in England (for Hampshire), for Nagarhar Leopards in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League, and in the BBL for Brisbane Heat, with whom he played for four seasons before moving to Melbourne Renegades in 2022.

In the 2021 T20 World Cup, Mujeeb started with a bang, taking 5 for 20 in a crushing win against Scotland - though Afghanistan didn't do much of note in the tournament.