Rahmanullah Gurbaz: Afghanan’s Dhoni fan with a zidd carves out a national image | Cricket-world-cup News

The town of Khost in south-eastern Afghanan is separated more than 1800 kms from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, India. The stories of the two cities’ favorite sons however, are closer. Like MS Dhoni, Rahmanullah Gurbaz doted on football, playing goalkeeper in the friendly street games. Like his cricketing idol, once exposed to the game, keeping-batting became Gurbaz’s obsession. Owner of an extensive motorbike collection? Not really, this one’s a fan of fast cars but we can let that slide for the sake of romance. More importantly, just like the former Indian skipper, Gurbaz’s liking of the sport was met with reservations back home. But first, a moment of discovery.
Gurbaz was 13 and playing tennis ball cricket when the coach of the Khost province, Mohammad Khan Zadran was taken aback what he saw as prodigious talent. “I asked him to come to my academy and start playing with the hard ball,” he tells The Indian Express over phone while supervising a morning session at his academy in Khost.
Gurbaz’s father, a school principal, wasn’t too fond of his son putting long hours in cricket over his own aspiration of him becoming a doctor. Elder brother Saadat would confront Zadran over the matter. “His elder brother told me, ‘I won’t let him play. Pehle school karega, phir cricket.’ Rahmanullah started crying at that moment and quavered, ‘I’ll play cricket. I won’t go to school’.”

It may have been a momentary melt of the heart but Saadat and his family eventually caved in to the dream of the second youngest among seven brothers. “His brother told me to do as Gurbaz wished. In five-six years, he was part of the U-19 team. Now he’s part of the national team,” says Zadran, just as a loud cheer of a boundary being hit can be heard in the background.
It is this ziddi (stubborn) nature of Gurbaz that’s been a critical factor in his meteoric rise, reckons Zadran. “The younger ones are always adored. Rahmanullah was ziddi for everything. I used to give in to his stubbornness and let him play the role he wanted to. An opener, a keeper since his starting days.”
“Rahmanullah was ziddi for everything. I used to give in to his stubbornness and let him play the role he wanted to. An opener, a keeper since his starting days,” says Zadran.
Couple that with his dileri (courage) to play the toughest bowlers on his terms, and you can understand the hype around Gurbaz. One only needs to go as far back as his 151 against Pakan in August. An innings where he displayed that even the most talked about pace attack in modern cricket could be taken down. When Shaheen Shah Afridi went short with the new ball, out came the disdainful pulls. Naseem Shah’s raw pace was almost seen in slow motion moving across the stumps to drive through covers. Haris Rauf switched from full to short and then length, but couldn’t avoid being hit for four boundaries in a row.
Fearless batting
“His biggest strength is his courage. Fast or slow, he isn’t afraid of anyone. Apni pasand ka ball aata hai toh sbko maarta hai (When he gets a ball to his liking, no bowler is safe,” says Zadran.
Of late though, among the conversations Zadran has had with his ward has been the suggestion to prize his wicket more in the 50 overs format.
“In the beginning, he used to bat in both T20 and One Day the same way. I told him, ‘You have the shots but value your wicket more. Don’t go for big hits every time. Udhar maarte, idhar maarte, ek do shot ko leke chalo (Don’t go for extravagant shots every time).’ ODI is a game of singles-doubles.” That T20 approach in the ODIs has been a big argument stacked against Afghanan in the format. Gurbaz’s strike rate dropping from 116 in his first year to 80 in 2023, and the hundreds coming more often (four of his five in the last 20 months), bodes well for them. Or as head coach Jonathan Trott puts it, “The longer Gurbaz bats for us, the more chance we have of winning.”
Afghanan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz celebrates his hundred runs during the ICC Cricket World Cup warm up match between Afghanan and Sri Lanka in Guwahati, India, Tuesday, Oct.3, 2023. (AP Photo)
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“They are very happy, now he’s earning for them also,” says Zadran, who’s not just talking about the financial gains of the household. Long before Gurbaz took to cricket, his family was among the most respected in Khost, courtesy of his father’s work in the academic community. Rahmanullah’s cricket has now taken the Gurbaz name beyond Khost’s fabled peaks. In scaling those heights though, the Afghanan opener hasn’t forgotten the larger picture.

“Us mountain people, we like to stay rooted to the ground. Now when Gurbaz comes to the academy, he tells the students what I once told him,” says his coach. In Afghanan, the past couple of years have seen the return of the Taliban regime. The societal importance of cricket is ever more so. It is in these times that the MS Dhoni fan has carved out a national image of his own.
“Young kids come to the academy now and say, ‘I want to be Rahmanullah and hit 4s and 6s the way he does.’ When it comes to batting, he’s the idol for them in Afghanan.”