With more runs than Rohit-Virat, and more wickets than Shami, Afghan player set the Champions Trophy on fire.
On one hand, in the Champions Trophy, big teams like England and Pakistan were eliminated in the first round, while a team like Bangladesh also failed to impress once again. On the other hand, in comparison to all these, the newest and most inexperienced Afghanistan team has continued to surprise the world by giving amazing performances. While players like Rashid Khan and Ibrahim Zadran have garnered all the attention, there is one player who is proving to be a tough opponent for even the big teams. This is all-rounder Azmatullah Omerzai, who has ripped apart big teams.
After England, Omarzai lashed out at Australia.
Afghanistan pulled off the biggest upset in the Champions Trophy 2025 by defeating England and knocking them out of the tournament. The star of Afghanistan's historic win was young opener Ibrahim Zadran, who scored a record-breaking century of 177 runs. But apart from Zadran, Omarzai also contributed a lot to it. This all-rounder sent 5 English batsmen back to the pavilion, including Joe Root, who scored a century with his medium pace. He also played a brilliant innings with the bat.
The same feat of Omarzai was seen in the third and last match of the group stage against Australia, where he took the team to a match-worthy score with his explosive innings. In this match held in Lahore, Afghanistan batted first and lost 7 wickets for just 199 runs. From here, Omarzai showed his magic and scored 67 runs in just 63 balls. In this inning, he hit only one four but hit 5 sixes, in which twice the ball fell 102 meters away. On the basis of this innings of Omarzai, Afghanistan scored a strong score of 273 runs.
Even ahead of Rohit-Virat-Shami
On the basis of this innings, Omarzai left behind many big batsmen in the Champions Trophy. Omarzai has scored 126 runs in 3 innings so far. Pakistan's legendary batsman Babar Azam could score only 87 runs. Omarzai even left behind legends like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. While Virat has scored 122 runs in 2 innings so far, Rohit has scored only 61 runs in the same number of innings. But not only in runs, but Omarzai is also ahead in terms of wickets. Omarzai has the highest number of 7 wickets in the tournament so far, while legendary Indian pacer Mohammed Shami has also been able to take 5 wickets.
won the player of the year award
This performance of Omarzai has not come only in this tournament, but this all-rounder has been wreaking havoc since the World Cup 2023. From the World Cup 2023 till now, Omarzai has scored 896 runs in 23 innings at an average of 56. In this, he has also scored 7 half-centuries and 1 century, while the strike rate is 102, while he has also taken 31 wickets in the same number of matches. That is why he was also given the ICC ODI Player of the Year 2024 award.