Afghanistan's Mujeeb Zadran: First male international cricketer born in new millenium

It has been just three days since they won a match. Yet they aren’t tired. War-torn Afghanistan keep producing new talents who rise from the ashes. Now one of the full members of cricket, what distinguishes Afghanistan from other nations is that its cricket team was officially recognised only in 2000.

This is far from other full nations, which can proudly boast their cricket centenaries. Aptly, the '21st century' cricket nation has produced the first '21st century' born international cricketer – Mujeeb Zadran.

At just 16, Mujeeb has lived up to the faith of his coach, Lalchand Rajput, by taking four wickets on debut, to reduce Ireland to 30/5. The Afghans didn’t show a trace of mercy on the Irishmen, who enjoyed a 200+ run victory in a first-class match just few days ago.

Here are the numbers from this ODI match:

1 – This is the first time where both the teams are playing their first international match as a full member in the same game (since the first ever Test match).

2 – Afghanistan is only the second team to win its first international match after becoming a full member, after Australia in the very first Test match in 1877.

16y 252d – Mujeeb Zadran’s age, born on 28 March 2001, becomes the first male international cricketer born in this millennium. Interestingly, there are four such women who already made their international debuts.

Gaby Lewis of Ireland is the first ever third millennium cricketer, making her debut in September 2014. She was born in March 2001, just a day before Mujeeb. Other three women cricketers are Louise Little and Lara Maritz, both from Ireland, along with Qiana Joseph from West Indies.

17y 2d – Age of the previous younger cricketer to play international cricket for Afghanistan, before Mujeeb Zadran. It is none other than his Under-19 captain Naveen-ul-Haq who made his debut in the ODI series against Bangladesh last year.

4 – Mujeeb Zadran is the fourth youngest bowler to take a wicket in international cricket after Aaqib Javed, Shahid Afridi and Talha Jubair.

0 – Bowlers who took a 4-wicket haul in any format of international cricket, at a younger age than Mujeeb. Thus Mujeeb broke a 15-year record, earlier held by the Bangladeshi medium pacer Talha Jubair in 2002, against South Africa in Potchefstroom at the age of 16y 297d.

1 – Only one player won the man-of-the-match trophy in ODIs at a younger age than Mujeeb Zadran. That is Shahid Afridi, who scored scored 102 in 40 balls against Sri Lanka in just his second match at the age of 16y 217d, breaking the fastest ODI century record. That record stood for several years until 2014.

16y 344d – Difference between the average ages of the two Irish bowlers who took a combined total of 7 wickets, when compared to the two Afghan bowlers who the two Afghan bowlers who took 7 wickets combined.

Both the Afghan bowlers, Mujeeb and Rashid, are under 20 while both the Irish bowlers, Rankin and Murtagh, are over 33. The age difference is so vast that it exceeds the age of Mujeeb Zadran by three months.

138 – Afghanistan’s largest victory in an ODI match by runs. In fact, this is only their third win by a margin of over 100 runs, with both the other instances against Zimbabwe.

5 – This is Ireland’s fifth lowest total in ODIs and their lowest against Afghanistan. Their other lower scores are:

· 77 v Sri Lanka in 2007

· 82 v Pakistan in 2016

· 91 v Australia in 2007

· 96 v Pakistan in 2011