Sikandar Raza

Sikandar Raza Butt is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer who is an all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling right-arm off-spin. He made his international debut for Zimbabwe in May 2013. Raza scored his maiden ODI century against Afghanistan in July 2014, helping Zimbabwe register a convincing victory. He was part of the Zimbabwean squad for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and was named stand-in captain during the India tour of Zimbabwe in 2015, leading Zimbabwe to their first win of the tour. The highlight of Raza's career came during the Zimbabwe tour to Sri Lanka in 2017, where he guided Zimbabwe to a historic 3-2 series win, their first ever against Sri Lanka. He also scored his maiden Test century in the one-off Test on the same tour. In February 2018, the ICC named Raza as one of the ten players to watch ahead of the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament, where he was awarded the Player of the Tournament despite Zimbabwe failing to qualify for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In January 2020, Raza took the second-best bowling figures in an innings for a Zimbabwe bowler in Test cricket, with 7 for 113 against Sri Lanka. He played his 100th ODI match against Bangladesh in March 2020. After a brief period of being sidelined from international cricket due to a bone marrow infection in 2021, Raza returned to competitive cricket in July 2021. He played a vital role in Zimbabwe's qualification for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, being named Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament in the Global Qualifier B tournament.