Hasan Ali

Short and wiry, Hasan Ali is a medium-fast bowler with a simple bowling action and a blend of variations. What he lacked in height he made up for with bowling smarts and a bag of tricks - reverse swing, a mean collection of slower balls, solid yorkers, and a skiddy bouncer.

He was a breakout star at the start of his international career, taking three or more wickets five times in his first 15 ODIs, becoming the fastest Pakistani to 50 wickets in the format, and impressing with tight lines on Test debut. He made his first-class debut in 2013, at 19, taking 4 for 32 against Lahore Ravi. In 2015-16, he gained attention with his white-ball efforts in the domestic T20 and one-day competitions and was picked up by Peshawar Zalmi for the inaugural PSL.

Still, no one could quite imagine the impact he would have on his first global tournament, the 2017 Champions Trophy. Taking three wickets in each of Pakistan's last four matches, he finished as the tournament's leading wicket-taker with 13 at an average of 14.69 and conceded only 4.29 an over. His ability to strike regular middle-overs blows was a key factor in Pakistan lifting their first global ODI trophy since the 1992 World Cup. He was the Player of the Tournament, the PCB's ODI cricketer of the year, and the most prolific bowler in ODIs in the world that year, with 45 wickets.

The following year his international form across formats dipped considerably, although he remained stellar in the PSL. From 2017 through 2019, he was instrumental in taking Zalmi to three successive finals, and they won the title in the first year of that run.

He did nothing of note in the 2019 World Cup, and then a back injury kept him out of the Pakistan side for the better part of two years - all the more frustrating because of an initial misdiagnosis and the PCB's characteristic poor handling of fast bowlers' rehab.

So it was a surprise to many when Hasan was the most prolific bowler of the 2020-21 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, taking 43 wickets at 20.06 for Central Punjab, captaining them to the final and scoring a blistering hundred from No. 8 in that match, a tie against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It earned him a Test recall - whereupon he took his first ten-for, in Rawalpindi, as Pakistan clinched their first series win over South Africa since 2003. He was also picked for the T20 World Cup in Australia that year, but didn't make an impact.

He remained consistent in the PSL, though, taking 13 or more wickets in four out of five seasons between 2021 and 2025, playing first for Islamabad United and then Karachi Kings.

Hasan replaced an injured Naseem Shah in Pakistan's 2023 ODI World Cup squad, but was dropped from the side after the tournament, and though he made it back to the T20I side in 2024, he didn't make the squad for the T20 World Cup that year.