The curious case of Sahibzada Farhan, a National T20 Cup record-breaker without a PSL contract

Sahibzada Farhan isn’t really a household name in Pakistan cricket, but it’s one that has been doing the rounds over the last half a month.

In that period, across seven innings, Farhan's put together one of the all-time great individual T20 campaigns. At Pakistan’s National T20 Cup 2024/25, he slammed 588 runs at 147, with three centuries, two fifties, and an astonishing strike rate of 194.05. He hit 40 sixes in all, with no one else managing more than 13.

The 29-year-old is already in exclusive company globally: only four other players have hit three centuries in a T20 tournament. His 162* is also the joint third-highest score in T20 history.

You’d think a player of this calibre would be a best-seller in the Pakistan Super League. Farhan, though, doesn’t have a contract this season.

What do Farhan’s overall stats say?

It’s not entirely surprising if you look at his track record. He’s played for three PSL teams across four seasons, and has an overall strike-rate of 119.94 from 21 innings. Those numbers look much better after his 2023/24 season with Lahore Qalandars, where he scored nearly 60 per cent of his PSL runs at an average of 38 and strike rate of 134.

It eventually opened the doors for a national recall, the second time in 2024 that Farhan re-appeared in T20Is. Before that year’s PSL, he played a couple of games in New Zealand, batting at No.5 and No.7 despite primarily being a top-three batter.

Watch: 'Has he picked up Viv Richards?' - Iftikhar Ahmed gives fiery send-off to Pakistan Test batter after National T20 Cup dismissal

While PSL may be the route for several Pakistan T20 hopefuls to get into the national side, Farhan has been running solely on his T20 Cup credentials.

Much like this season, he was the leading run-getter in the 2023/24 edition as well, scoring 492 at 44.72, and a strike rate of 179, a century and four fifties included. He’s now top-scored four times in the T20 Cup. In 2021, he was named PCB’s domestic player of the year.

Sahibzada Farhan’s T20 record – last five years

Sahibzada Farhan in the PSL

The two halves of a bizarre T20I career

Not many would remember the first half of Farhan’s T20I career, separated from his second stint by nearly four years. His debut came back in 2018, when Sarfaraz Ahmed was still Pakistan skipper (he ended up playing under four captains across nine matches).

Twenty-two at that time, he’d been called up to replace Ahmed Shehzad for the Zimbabwe T20Is. He averaged 52 in List A cricket at that point, and held a PSL contract with Islamabad United. The List A average has since come down to 41.80. He’s also played 60 first-class matches, averaging 45.54 with ten hundreds.

His career started in bizarre fashion too: 0 off 0 – stumped off the second ball of the match to a Glenn Maxwell wide. Next game, against Australia, he hit a 38-ball 39 opening with Babar Azam, which remains his highest T20I score so far.

Pakistan found a better opening pairing in Babar and Fakhar Zaman, but not for long. Over the next three years, they tried as many as seven others at the top, including a one-off comeback for Shehzad. By the time Farhan played another T20I, that count had gone up to 13.

His T20I numbers don’t make for a pretty reading: at 95.55 and 9.55, he’s got the second lowest strike-rate and average for a Pakistan top-seven batter who’s played at least as many innings as him (9).

Farhan himself believes that moving around the order did not help his case: in those nine innings, he batted as opener, No.3, No.5 and No.7. He spoke about it in December: “It [moving around] can work in domestic cricket, even in the PSL, but it’s difficult at the international level to switch from top to middle order. You barely get a ball or two to settle in before you hit – it’s difficult if you’re playing at a spot for 8-10 years, and then changing”.

What's next for Farhan?

It remains to be seen if the latest run-glut is enough for him to secure another recall. In his own words, Farhan has worked hard on his shortcomings to become a better T20 batter across this tournament. “I have worked on my weak areas, specifically strike-rotation,” he said after the semi-final.

It’s not entirely unlikely – he was part of the T20I setup until four months ago, and Pakistan’s opening pairing, pre- and post- the Babar-Rizwan monopoly is a game of musical chairs. In the last two years, they’ve had 10 different T20I openers.

However, Farhan's T20 Cup campaign ended in a thumping nine-wicket loss, with him managing a 16-ball 17 in the final. it proved to be a damp end to a fantastic run. Also, two weeks from now, the PSL will begin without him: Farhan would be hoping his lofty scores aren't forgotten quickly.

Image credit: PCB

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