Sikandar Raza

Sikandar Raza, born in Pakistan, made a name for himself as an all-formats regular for Zimbabwe, and a noted T20 freelancer in the second and third decades of the 21st century.

Raza, from Sialkot, wanted to be a fighter pilot, and won a place at the Pakistan air-force college. But after failing an eye test that put paid to that dream, he began to play cricket on a semi-professional basis, and moved to Zimbabwe, where his parents had lived since 2002. He made his first-class debut in the Logan Cup for Northerns in 2007, and played four matches that season before completing his studies and returning to full-time cricket with a bang in the 2010-11 season - making two fifties and a hundred in his first two games for Southern Rocks.

In May 2013 he made his international debut for Zimbabwe, playing white-ball series against Bangladesh and India before making 60 in his first Test, against Pakistan at home in a game where Zimbabwe took a sizeable first-innings lead but couldn't translate it into a win. The following year he made his first ODI hundred, 141 against Afghanistan in Bulawayo.

He first played Pakistan in the ODI World Cup of 2015, and then made a hundred against them in Lahore in a bilateral. He was instrumental in Zimbabwe beating Sri Lanka in 2016 - their first-ever win in a five-match ODI series away from home.

Raza lost his place in the Zimbabwe side despite being Player of The Tournament in the qualifier tournament for the 2019 ODI World Cup, for which the team didn't make the cut. He made it back, overcame a bone-marrow infection in 2021, and was Player of the Match in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup Qualifier for his bowling figures of 4 for 8 against Netherlands. He also won match awards after Zimbabwe beat Ireland and Pakistan in the main event. That year was his most successful in internationals, producing 1380 white-ball runs, and he went on to become Zimbabwe's T20I captain in 2023, aged 37.

Raza took to T20 with alacrity when the format boomed. He played multiple seasons in the BPL and IPL, and won titles with Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL, and twice with Lahore Qalandars in the PSL, the second of which came in 2025, when he travelled straight from Nottingham to Lahore for the tournament final hours after playing for Zimbabwe in a Test against England.