Fazalhaq Farooqi: From CSK nets to SRH at the IPL auction & now doing it for Afghanistan

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Left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi on Wednesday (February 23) ran through the Bangladeshi top-order to put Afghanistan in the ascendancy in the first ODI of the three-match series in Chattogram.

Farooqi helped Afghanistan make a roaring start to their defence of the paltry 216-run target, securing as many as four of the top 6 Bangladeshi batters in his kitty.

Playing only his second ODI game for Afghanistan after a debut outing versus the Netherlands in January, the 21-year-old bagged the prized scalps of Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim, two of Bangladesh’s finest, to lead his team’s sucker punch.

As he finished his first spell with eye-catching figures of 4 for 19, Fazalhaq Farooqi’s name reverberated among fans, who were left glued to the fixture in Chattogram seeing Afghanistan’s latest bowling sensation take his first leap at the international stage.

Watch: Noor Ahmad, Afghanistan’s Rising Spin Bowling Talent At The U19 World Cup 2022

Fazalhaq Farooqi is one of the young quicks coming through from Afghanistan.

Who is Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi?

For Indian fans, the interest around Fazalhaq Farooqi would’ve only grown after his recent big day at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction in Bangalore. Farooqi found a winning bid of INR 50 lakhs from 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

A promising left-arm quick, with his ability to bring the ball into the right-hander as well as swing it away from him, Farooqi previously played a part in Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) journey of resurgence at the IPL 2021. The young gun was MS Dhoni-led team’s net bowler for the tournament, a vote of confidence that came his way only a month after his maiden T20I outing against Zimbabwe in March.

CSK found Farooqi an interesting commodity because of his skillful bowling at a very young age, including a notable mix of slower balls that batters find difficult to spot and execute their big shots against.

The pacer has had a rapid rise over the last two years. The journey truly began with the previous edition of the U-19 World Cup in South Africa back in 2020. Playing four games for his country, the left-arm quick bagged five wickets with an economy rate of 5.12 on what were relatively flat surfaces.

From there, Fazalhaq Farooqi warmed up to the senior domestic game in Afghanistan, before finding gigs last year at the T10 tournament in UAE and the recent Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), which would’ve been an invaluable experience for the youngster, for whom the sky seems the limit at this stage.

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