Afghanistan international Fazalhaq Farooqi is in contention for his Notts debut as the Outlaws entertain Leicestershire Foxes on Friday 5 July, as he begins a six-game stint with the side.

The paceman recently arrived in the UK after a productive T20 World Cup, in which he finished as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 17 scalps at an impressive average of 9.41.

His exploits bolstered an impressive overall record for his country in white-ball cricket, with the left-armer having now claimed 98 wickets across 74 appearances in the ODI and T20 formats.

Read more below, and secure your seats for Outlaws v Foxes here...

 

Opening with a career-best

Afghanistan’s historic run to the last four of the World Cup began in fine style, as Uganda were crushed by 125 runs in Guyana.

Central to the victory was Farooqi, whose final bowling analysis of five wickets for nine runs was almost beyond belief.

Ronak Patel may have opened his innings with a sweetly-struck boundary off Farooqi’s first ball, but that proved to be something of a false dawn.

Patel was comprehensively bowled from the left-armer’s very next delivery, before Roger Mukasa was comprehensively castled by a devilish inswinger.

Riazat Ali Shah survived the hat-trick ball, but Farooqi would not be denied further success.

The bowler’s third over yielded two in two once more, before Robinson Obuya became his fifth victim to complete Farooqi’s five-wicket haul.

The speedster’s figures were a new career-best, and the fourth-best in the history of the T20 World Cup.

 

 

A four-fer against the former finalists

New Zealand would present a tougher challenge for Afghanistan and Farooqi, but their assembled all-stars were unable to prevent Jonathan Trott’s side from chalking up a memorable scalp.

Again Farooqi’s powerplay prowess was central: first, he sent Finn Allen’s leg stump cartwheeling from the first ball of the innings, before Devon Conway chipped to cover in his second over.

Daryl Mitchell would fall victim to the 23-year-old too, only able to edge behind for 5, while Farooqi would return to clean up Matt Henry and secure an 84-run victory for his side.

A strong showing against the eventual champions

Farooqi would pick up three further wickets against Papua New Guinea, and he would also impress in a losing cause against India.

The left-armer removed three of Rohit Sharma’s globetrotting giants – including the captain and opener himself, who was lured into toe-ending a slower ball to mid-on.

In announcing his impending arrival at the Outlaws, Head Coach Peter Moores hailed Farooqi’s ability to bowl at the death.

And it was this which was in evidence towards the end of the India innings, as the explosive Suryakumar Yadav skied to long-off in the 17th over, and Ravindra Jadeja was befuddled by a slower, shorter delivery in the 19th.

Farooqi’s penchant for securing a big-name scalp would be on show again in the semi-final as, despite Afghanistan’s eventual exit at the last four stage, the left-armer’s mastery of his art saw him beat Quinton de Kock with successive outswingers before thudding an inswinger into his off-stump.