Substance over style: Gurbaz-Zadran’s mantra to success

Ibrahim Zadran is yet to play in a high-level franchise league. 

Rahmanullah Gurbaz has mostly warmed the bench at the Indian Premier League. 

Yet when they combine, they bring the best of the bowling units to their knees. This opening partnership has kept Afghanistan’s batting ticking over the past two years. 

Since 2022, the Afghani duo at the top have put on 688 runs together at the crease, with an average of 62.54. This is only the third-highest average for any partnership in T20Is. While Zadran plays second fiddle, Gurbaz often plays the aggressor in this partnership.

Heading into the T20 World Cup 2024, it was always clear that Afghanistan’s bowling was going to be their stronger suit. But as it has turned out thus far, their openers have killed the competition by forging bravery with nerves of steel. 

In Afghanistan’s World Cup opener against new boys Uganda, the duo at the top combined to put on a 154-run stand, with Gurbaz smacking the bowlers with a 45-ball 76 while Zadran put a lot of emphasis on laying the groundwork, running between the wickets. 

Okay, just one game. 

Nope. The duo were yet again at it against New Zealand in the second group fixture. They scored 103 runs in 14.2 overs before the BlackCaps separated them. They were making a habit of scoring runs at the top of the order, often forcing the opposition to quickly search for a plan B. 

Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner, and Lockie Ferguson were all quickly searching for it. Bravery combined with brains could inflict more damage than one can comprehend. That partnership quickly started becoming the talk of the town. 

Just when it was catching fire, the management doused the fire, switching up the opening pair for the clash against India, where Hazratullah Zazai walked out to bat alongside Gurbaz. The result? The pair could only make 13 runs and, more importantly, only survived eight balls. 

Why break something that was working? 

With their backs against the wall now, Gurbaz and Zadran came, saw, and conquered one of the best bowling units in world cricket — Australia. Australia posed many challenges throughout the clash, but the duo came out batting with so much calmness that one confused them with some of the bigger boys. 

Together, they scored 118 runs, opening the batting, in a historic win for the Asian side. By then, they had already sent a warning sign to the entire world — be better prepared for us. So, with the stakes running at an all-time high for Afghanistan, with a sem-final spot on the line, the onus was yet again on them. 

They walked out like two men who were on a mission, playing with such finesse. Unlike previous occasions, the aggressive hand wasn’t Gurbaz but Zadran, who put the first boundary on the board. Time and again in this tournament, Afghanistan’s openers have had the same approach - take time, build a partnership and put on a total beyond the par score. 

It wasn’t the style that mattered to them, but it was that substance. In the entirety of the tournament, the duo ran the fielders ragged, with 108 singles, 36 doubles and even a triple. If you were wondering, no other partnership even ran 20 doubles, and the second being at 15 doubles between Phil Salt and Jos Buttler. 

It really shows how the pair valued running between the wicket as much as they believed in finding boundaries, which accounts for 48.4% of their 442 runs. Throughout the tournament, they have also found the right balance between the two. 

However, cometh the big clash against Bangladesh, where they needed a win for qualification, they miserably failed, scoring just 27 runs in the powerplay. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that they have the most 50+ run stands in T20 World Cup history for an opening pair. They also had the most runs for any batting pair in a World Cup edition. 

They might have certainly made history, but will that slowness on the biggest day come back to haunt them and a place in the semi-finals?

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