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Sports Reporter

CHEVRONS all-rounder and T20I skipper, Sikandar Raza, through his social media assured fans of his loyalty to Zimbabwe, a country that made him the world class player that he turned out to be in his 11-year international career.

The 38- year old Chevrons stalwart was born in Sialkot in the North-Eastern region of Pakistan before he moved to Zimbabwe, where his parents had resided since 2002, and he made his first-class debut in 2007.

He made one half century in nine innings before completing his studies and returning to full-time cricket in the 2010-11 season. He had a more fruitful time, scoring 625 runs at an average of 41. From then, Raza’s journey has been an inspirational one.

To date, he is considered as one of Zimbabwe’s finest ever cricketers and through social media, the star all-rounder maintained his loyalty to Zimbabwe when he was asked on whether he would wish to represent the country of his birth, Pakistan one day.

“I am a born Pakistani and a product of Zimbabwe Cricket. I will only and ever represent Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe spent time and money on me and I am only trying to repay their faith and whatever I achieve will never even get close to repaying it. Zim is mine and am theirs fully,” Raza posted.

Raza has become a household name not only in Zimbabwe but globally. 

With the passion and love that he possesses for the game and country, Raza in the past years has become Zimbabwe’s best cricketer; giving his all with both bat and ball whenever he dons the national colours.

As his sign of love and passion, he has given his blood and sweat on and off the cricket field and the fire within him whenever he plays is testament to that.

To date, Raza has played 250 matches for Zimbabwe across all the three formats. He has 142 ODI caps to his name and has scored 4 154 runs in 134 innings at an average of 36, 46. He has seven centuries to his name and 21 half centuries. With ball in hand, he has 88 wickets to his name with best figures of 4/55.

In T20Is, Raza has scored 2 037 runs in 91 matches (87 innings) with a high score of 87 runs, and 14 half centuries. In 80 innings with the ball in the shortest format, Raza has picked up 66 wickets with best figures of 4/8.

In the longest version of the game, Test, the 37-year-old all-rounder has managed to play 17 games for Zimbabwe (33 innings) scoring 1 187 runs at 35, 96 with a high score of 127 runs. He has one ton and eight half-centuries. With ball in hand, he has picked up 34 wickets at 42, 38 and an economy of 3, 25. His best bowling figures in an innings are 7/113.

Raza has been lifting the Zimbabwean flag high wherever he plays with some of his major highlights coming during his debut Indian Premier League (IPL) season with Punjab Kings where he became the first Zimbabwean to score a half-century and was named Player of the Match in an IPL game.

He also became the first Zimbabwean cricketer to win an ICC Player of the Month accolade when he was named ICC Player of the Month for August 2022.

At the moment, he is the second highest ranked T20 all-rounder in the world. He has a rating of 208 points, three behind number one ranked Marcus Stoinis from Australia.