3 reasons why Rahmanullah Gurbaz could finish as Afghanistan's greatest ever batter

Rahmanullah Gurbaz is one of the fastest rising stars in world cricket. The 22-year-old from Afghanistan made his T20I debut back in 2019 against Ireland. He has represented his nation in 57 T20Is so far, scoring 1,532 runs at a strike rate of 139.52.

In his most recent T20I outing, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a match-winning 80 against former T20 World Cup finalists New Zealand and helped Afghanistan register a historic victory at the Providence Stadium. On a pitch where the entire Kiwi playing XI managed 75 runs, Gurbaz alone scored 80 off 56 for Afghanistan. The wicket-keeper batter unsurprisingly won the Man of the Match award.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz showed glimpses of greatness in his innings against New Zealand, and here are three reasons why he can end up becoming Afghanistan's greatest batter of all time.

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#1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz knows how to deal with big-match pressure

Afghanistan always had some quality players in their lineup, but whenever they received an opportunity to play at a big stage, they would often underperform. However, Gurbaz is different.

He has played two matches in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 and aggregated 156 runs, that too while playing at the Providence Stadium, where most of the other batters have struggled to get going. Afghanistan had never defeated New Zealand in a T20 World Cup match before, but Gurbaz did not think much about the past and brought his 'A' game to the table against the Kiwis.

Also, just before the T20 World Cup, Gurbaz won IPL 2024 with Kolkata Knight Riders. He got a chance to play directly in the playoffs, and he chipped in with important contributions of 23 and 39 in the two games he played. With the ability to deal with big-match pressure, Gurbaz can guide Afghanistan to many memorable wins in his career.

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#2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz has gone through the red-ball grind

One of the biggest reasons why Gurbaz has achieved success in tough batting conditions is that he has red-ball cricket experience. The 22-year-old wicket-keeper played his debut first-class game back in 2018. So far, he has the experience of playing 13 first-class matches, where he has registered one century and seven fifties.

When a batter scores runs in red-ball cricket, his confidence increases significantly. Not many Afghanistan players have gone through the red-ball grind, which gives Gurbaz a slight edge and a higher chance of ending up as the nation's greatest batter.

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#3 Rahmanullah Gurbaz has played T20 cricket across the globe

Afghanistan's bowlers have always been in demand in T20 leagues, but very few batters of the country have a contract in almost every T20 competition. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is one of those few batters.

The youngster has played in the IPL, BPL, ILT20, CPL, PSL, LPL, APL and the Abu Dhabi T10 League. With so much experience of playing against top-quality bowlers in different conditions, Gurbaz has got all what it takes to become the greatest batter of Afghanistan's cricket history. He will be in action against Papua New Guinea next week in Tarouba.