Biography

A gallant left-hander built on the likes of his nation's hero, Shahid Afridi; Awais Zia barged into the international arena in this fashion. Facing his first international delivery, he attempted a full-throttled slog over covers off Steven Finn's bowling. Finn was perplexed by Zia's onslaught straight away. Zia earned only two runs off that delivery but carved himself a stereo-typed version of Afridi of all sorts from there on. Featuring in the T20I series against England in 2012, Awais may not have cemented his place, but the manner in which he went about in his stride has surely sent a notice to the cricketing fraternity.

A battle-scarred player with the Rawalpindi Rams, he assisted his team in reaching the finals of the Faysal Bank T20 Cup, 2011. Even though his team lost the match, the impact of Awais was seen in the chase with a brutal 32 runs off just 13 balls. This innings helped him fast-track the process to represent Pakistan in the international arena and he made his debut against England in a T20I in Dubai, 2012.