Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi

In one of the games of that series, played in Dehradun, Afghanistan had posted more than 200 runs and were looking to protect that total. Rahman contributed two wickets to the effort, but the occasion appeared to weigh on him. He looked tense in the field and failed to back up his fellow bowlers several times over the course of the game. On a couple of occasions he lost his footing while patrolling the boundary, and those slips allowed the Irish batters to collect a pair of fours.

Rahman is not the only young seamer coming through in Afghanistan, so competition for a spot is real. To hold on to a regular place, he is expected to sharpen his fitness and put even more work into his fielding, since in the shortest format every run conceded can matter. Should he steady his nerves and tidy up those areas in future fixtures, he has the potential to become a capable pace option for his national side.