Gulbadin Naib

Gulbadin Naib's first love in the sporting world was amateur bodybuilding, not cricket. When he eventually did take the game up, however, he progressed quickly through Afghanistan's age group sides as a batting allrounder and was the youngest member of the team that won the Division Five tournament in 2008 - the first stepping stone to the full world stage.

But Gulbadin was dropped after that tournament, and had to deal with several pressing hardships in his personal life. His father was unemployed, his mother had contracted hepatitis, and the family was struggling to deal with the needs of his disabled sister. Happily, he was able to force his way back into the national team in 2011, and his full-time central contract helped to bring a little more stability to his home. Since then, he's settled into a floating role in Afghanistan's middle order, chipping in with both bat and ball, and his game has progressed most rapidly in cricket's shortest format. Gulbadin hits almost as many sixes as fours in Twenty20 cricket, and he's expressed an interest in opening the batting for Afghanistan in T20s in the not-too-distant future.
Liam Brickhill