Ormskirk is delighted to announce the signing of Afgan left-arm spinner Zahir Shehzad for their 2022 Liverpool League campaign.

Unfortunately, the club was forced to switch pros owing to the West Indies domestic competition running into June. This meant terminating their original professional, Larry Edwards’ contract.

Afghan domestic star

Shehzad is another exceptional left-arm spinner from Afghanistan. He plays his professional cricket for Speen Ghar Region, alongside global superstar Qais Ahmad.

The tweaker burst into domestic cricket in 2017 and finished as the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-Day Tournament’s joint leading wicket-taker with 55 scalps at 26.63. To add context, fellow CricX star Zia Ur Rehman Akbar shared the top spot (55 wickets at 19.74) and was arguably UK league cricket’s best spin bowler in 2021 (85 wickets at 6.67 for Lytham in Division 1 of the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition).

From injury to domestic dominance

Early into the New Year (2018), Shehzad continued to shine, despite an elbow injury that hampered the latter of his 7 matches (between January and April 2018). Unfortunately, the injury halted Shehzad’s progression, as he took a year out of the game to recover before his return in April 2019.

He played 4 matches throughout the 2019 calendar year, the highlight – his 6-wicket bag against Mis Ainak Region – his fifth in first-class cricket. Unfortunately, having fully recovered COVID hit, and first-class cricket was canceled in 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, Shehzad returned towards the back-end of the year and now sits on 101 wickets at 30.07 in his 24 first-class matches played to date.

Set for Liverpool stint

The Afghan tweaker is now set to embark on his maiden UK stint in 2022 having recently signed with Ormskirk for their Liverpool League campaign.