Afghanistan sensational young off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has been alleged for producing fake age. In a recent report at Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn, former Pakistan wicketkeeper and former Afghanistan national team coach Rashid Latif said that he had spotted Mujeeb Ur Rahman during a short camp in Kabul in 2010.
Latif quoted, “I was approached by Hamid Shinwari, the then CEO of the board, and I travelled to Afghanistan to find a good bunch of players during a short camp in Kabul. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Amir Hamza and a few others were potentially good cricketers.
“Gulbadin Naib, a junior level bodybuilder, too caught my attention but then he left the scene. Still, I remembered his name because it reminded me of the Afghan leader Gulbadin Hikmatyar. I summoned Gulbadin to the following camp in Jalalabad.”
Mujeeb Ur Rahman's current age is listed at 17, born in 2001. But former Afghanistan coach/Pakistan Test player Rashid Latif was quoted in an article published today on Dawn that he identified Mujeeb at a senior team trial in 2010. 🤔🤔🤔🧐 https://t.co/HRMyE4skRR pic.twitter.com/KvpfoqsQrj
— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) October 15, 2018
According to the players’ profile information in ESPNcricinfo, Mujeeb Ur Rahman was born on 28 March 2001 at Khost and now his age is more than 17 years. The right-arm off-spinner first time came in limelight during the 2017 ACC U-19 Asia Cup at Malaysia where Afghanistan U-19 won the tournament after beating Pakistan U-19 in the final. Mujeeb was the Player of the Tournament award winner after finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 20 wickets (average 5.55).
Mujeeb also featured in the 2018 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, where Afghanistan U-19 finished as the semi-finalist. Before that tournament, Mujeeb made his ODI debut while his T20I and Test debuts happened after the youth World Cup.
Mujeeb has played only Test, 23 ODIs and 7 T20Is where he has taken a total of 54 wickets (one in Test, 44 in ODIs and nine in T20Is).
Mujeeb has a high demand in the foreign T20 leagues as he has already featured in the Bangladesh Premier League (Comilla Victorians in 2017), Indian Premier League (Kings XI Punjab in 2018) and England’s T20 Blast (Hampshire in 2018). Recently, he has signed for Brisbane Heat for the entire 2018/19 Australian Big Bash League.
