Picture Credit: Twitter
Afghanistan were up against the reigning champions England in the 13th clash of the World Cup 2023 on October 15, Sunday, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Their young wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil played a brilliant knock to contribute 58 runs to their scoreboard in their third match of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023.
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The 23-year-old cricketer not only kept wickets during the match, but also played a much-needed innings for his side. Alikhil replaced Najibullah Zadran to play his maiden World Cup match against the Three Lions. Batting at six, Alikhil scored 58 runs off 66 balls with a combination of three boundaries and two sixes to give the side some stability in the match.
Born on September 29, 2000, Alikhil made his ODI debut in March 2019 against Ireland before debuting in Test format in the same month. Later, on 6 June 2019, he was added to Afghanistan's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The youngster came as a replacement of Mohammad Shahzad, who was ruled out of the tournament due to a knee injury.
However, Alikhil played his first match in the 2023 edition and scored a fifty against England in his first match of the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Since his debut, Alikhil has played one Test match and 14 ODI matches. While the cricketer could manage to score only seven runs in his Test match, he has scored 296 runs in the 50-over format with the highest score of 86 runs.
