Sediqullah Atal

A left-hand opening batter from Logar, south of Kabul, Sediqullah Atal made debuts in all three formats for Afghanistan in 2023 and 2024. He played his first T20 as a 19-year-old in September 2020 for Kabul Eagles in the Shpageeza Premier League, and such was his promise that he was called up to the Afghanistan ODI squad in July the following year, before he had played a game of List-A cricket.

Though that series, against Pakistan, was postponed, Atal made his Afghanistan debut when it was rescheduled as a T20I series two years on. His start in the format was not great, though, but in October 2024 he lit up the ACC Emerging T20 Asia Cup, where he scored 368 runs for Afghanistan A, making fifties in each of his five innings, topping the run-scorers' table for the tournament, and helping his side win the title. Soon after, he played in the SA20, his first overseas T20 league, scoring 74 opening the batting in one of his three games that season for MI Cape Town, the eventual title winners.

Before that, there was the ODI debut. By his fourth innings in December 2024, Atal had hit his first hundred in the format, scoring 104 against Zimbabwe, and following it with a fifty in the next game. At the 2025 Champions Trophy in Lahore, Sediqullah top-scored with 85 in 95 in a washed-out game against Australia.