Sikandar Raza

Sikandar Raza Butt is a Pakistani-born cricketer who represents the Zimbabwean National team in all three formats. Born on 24 April 1986, he is a right-handed batting all-rounder who is handy with the ball as a right-arm off break.

He moved to Zimbabwe in 2001 from Pakistan and impressed at domestic level. The only issue was his citizenship issues, which was granted in 2011.

Sikandar Raza Background

He had his ambitions set on to become a fighter pilot from the early age and got into Air Force college. Unfortunately, he was forced to drop out as he failed an eye test during the third year. While pursuing his bachelor's degree at the Glasgow Caledonian University, he realized his potential in the sport after playing semi-professional domestic cricket.

After the introduction of new system of domestic cricket, he also played List A cricket originally for Northerns where he played for two years before switching to Mashonaland Eagles for whom he is playing his third spell now.

He made his List A debut in 2007 against Westerns where he scored just one run.

He made his Twenty20 debut for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers as he again made 1 off 6 balls.

Sikandar Raza Debut

His ODI debut was against Bangladesh on May 3, 2013, when he scored just 3 runs coming in at number 3.

Just 8 days later, he made his T20I debut when he played as a middle-order batsman and scored a run-a-ball 14 as Zimbabwe won the encounter.

He made his Test Debut against Pakistan on 3rd September 2013 in which he made 60 and 24 in the first match as Pakistan won by 221 runs.

Sikandar Raza Rise to Glory

In 2010, he turned out to be a Twenty20 specialist with the bat as he was the leading run-scorer in the Domestic T20 Competition.

In the Metbank Pro40 Championship Final in 2010, he played an important knock against Mid-West Rhinos to win them the championship. He started to grab the attention of selectors as the result of the tournament.

He was in the preliminary squad for Zimbabwe 2011 Cricket World Cup but couldn’t make the cut into the final squad for the campaign.

He was instrumental in their 3-2 series win over Sri Lanka which was Zimbabwe’s first ever 5 match series win away from home as he was adjourned the man of the match award for his wonderful spell of 3/21 and scoring 27 runs in the series decider.

He backed it up with a career-defining hundred (127 off 205) against a Rangana Herath-led Sri Lankan attack in the one-off Test in Colombo immediately after the ODI series.

This was followed by yet another head-turning performance during the home series against West Indies later that year. In the 2nd Test in Bulawayo, Raza scored 80 & 89 in addition to picking up his maiden five-for (5/99) to help Zimbabwe draw the game.

An year later, he finished as Zimbabwe's 2nd-highest run-scorer- 196 runs in 6 innings at the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.

Raza continued to spearhead the batting-unit together during the seasons that ensued, with his form peaking in 2022.

In August 2022, the right-handed batter struck consecutive hundreds against Bangladesh to help the African nation pull off a shock ODI series win.

He followed it with another breathtaking hundred- a 95-ball 115- against India to nearly help Zimbabwe chase down 290 in the 3rd ODI in Harare.

Since the start of 2018, no Zimbabwe batter has scored more runs than Raza's 1812. His T20I batting also seems to have hit a purple patch, with the classy batter elevating his strike-rate a few notches higher while also maintaining his consistency.

He has batted 16 times in the ongoing calendar year and has hammered 598 runs @ 42.71/154.52 with 5 50+ scores.

The batting all-round was at the peak of his powers during the T20I series against Bangladesh in July-August 2022, scoring 127 runs @ 63 besides taking 5 wickets in 3 games at 29.20 apiece.

Raza has started off his T20 World Cup 2022 in style as he smashed a match-winning 48-ball 82 besides notching up figures of 1/22 (3) against Ireland in the Group B fixture in Hobart.

His 82 is the highest score recorded by a Zimbabwe batter in a T20 World Cup encounter.

Sikandar Raza Club Career

He played for Northerns, a first-class cricket team in Zimbabwe from 2007 to 2009 before moving to Mashonaland Eagles in 2009 and 2011 season.

He played the 2010 edition for Southern Rocks. He now represents Mashonaland Eagles.

He was then picked up by Chittagong Vikings in the 2017 edition of Bangladesh Premier League.

Raza has also represented the likes of Peshawar Zalmi, Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League.

Sikandar Raza Captaincy

He captained four times for Mash Eagles in domestic cricket in 2012. He stood as captain for Zimbabwe for the second T20 match in India’s tour of Zimbabwe as Elton Chigumbura was injured. They went on to win the match by 10 runs.

Overall, Raza has captained Zimbabwe in 4 games and he has a 50% captaincy record.

Sikandar Raza Records

• One of the 5 Zimbabwean cricketers to complete the triple of 1000 runs, 50 wickets and 50 catches in ODIs.

• Part of the highest opening stand (also the highest for any wicket) for Zimbabwe in ODIs with Hamilton Masakadza- 224 vs Afghanistan in 2014

• First all-rounder to score 250+ runs and claim 5+ wickets in a 3-match ODI series.

• Highest score by a Zimbabwe batter in a T20 World Cup fixture: 82 off 48 vs Ireland in Hobart on 17th October 2022.

• He scored two fifties and claimed a fifer which made him only the second Test cricketer to score 80 plus in both innings and take a five-wicket haul after South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.