Bahir Shah

Bahir Shah (born 21 February 2000) is an Afghan cricketer.[1] He made his first-class debut for Speen Ghar Region in the 2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament on 20 October 2017, scoring 256 runs not out in the first innings.[2] It was the second-highest score on debut, and he became the 17th player to score a double century on first-class debut.[3][4]

The following month, in his third first-class match, he scored a century in both innings, making 111 and 116 respectively.[5] In his next match, he scored 303 not out in the first innings against Boost Region.[6] He became the second-youngest player, after Javed Miandad, to score a triple century in first-class cricket.[7] From his first six innings in first-class cricket he made 831 runs, the most by any player, breaking the previous record of 741 runs made by Bill Ponsford.[8] He scored his 1,000th run in first-class cricket in his eleventh innings, the second-fastest behind Ponsford.[9] He finished the 2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament as the leading run-scorer, with a total of 1,096 runs.[10]

In December 2017, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.[9] In January 2018, his batting average in first-class cricket was 121.77.[11] This was the highest for any batsman who had scored at least 1,000 first-class runs, with Donald Bradman second on the list with an average of 95.14.[11]

However, for the 2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, his form dropped, scoring 408 runs in 7 matches, with just one century.[12] His average for the tournament was 34, with his career average dropping to 71.61.[12]

He made his List A debut for Speen Ghar Region in the 2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament on 11 July 2018.[13] He only played in two matches during the tournament, scoring a total of sixteen runs, with an average of eight.[14] In April 2019, in the opening match of the 2019 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, he scored 156 not out against Boost Region, and was named the player of the match.[15] He finished the tournament with 400 runs in five matches, including two centuries.[16]

In September 2019, in Speen Ghar Region's first match of the 2019 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament, he scored 103 runs.[17] He finished the tournament with 237 runs, including two centuries, from his four innings. He also took four wickets from just eight balls.[18]

He made his Twenty20 debut for Speen Ghar Tigers in the 2019 Shpageeza Cricket League on 11 October 2019, but only scored three runs.[19] Shah only played in one more match in the tournament, scoring 26 runs in his two innings.[20]

In November 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's squad for the 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Bangladesh.[21]