“Welcome to the Foxes family”: Naveen ul Haq welcomes Rahmanullah Gurbaz after being signed by Leicestershire for 2022 Vitality Blast

Gurpreet Singh | 28/10/2021
"Welcome to the Foxes family": Naveen ul Haq welcomes Rahmanullah Gurbaz after being signed by Leicestershire for 2022 Vitality Blast

Naveen ul Haq welcomes Rahmanullah Gurbaz as Leicestershire County Cricket Club signs the latter for 2022 Vitality Blast campaign

Afghanistan international pacer Naveen ul Haq is all set to play alongside his fellow rising Afghan talent in Rahmanullah Gurbaz as Leicestershire CCC sign the latter for their upcoming Vitality Blast T20 campaign in 2022.

As per Gurbaz, it was Naveen himself who had spoken highly of the Club, and the moment he sensed that they (Liecestershire CCC) were interested, he had no second thoughts in accepting the offer and is desperate to prove his worth before the fans.

ALSO READ: ICC T20 World Cup 2021 team squads and players list

“It has always been my dream to play county cricket. I can’t wait to join the Foxes at the Uptonsteel County Ground and from the moment I heard that there was interest, it was an easy decision to make. Naveen spoke so highly of the Club and I was desperate to be part of that and show the fans what I can do”, exclaimed an elated Gurbaz.

Naveen on the other hand had been re-signed with Leicestershire CCC for next summer a couple of days ago. He was in fact their leading wicket taker in the 2021 Vitality Blast.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz  and Naveen ul Haq numbers

A fierce striker of the Cricket ball, Gurbaz has featured in 14 T20Is for Afghanistan so far and is also a vital cog in the Afghan top order in their ongoing T20 World Cup campaign. He has scored 492 international runs at an average of 35.14 and with a best of 87. His international strike-rate is 141.78 and that rises to 152.85 across all domestic competitions, which makes for the reason he’s been signed by the English club.

Foxes Head Coach Paul Nixon was delighted to see Gurbaz join his international teammate in Leicestershire. He said: “We have been keeping a very close eye on Rahmanullah [Gurbaz] for a couple of years now.

“Rahmanullah is one of the most exciting young players in the modern game, his 360-degree clean power hitting ability is to be marvelled at.

“He has a class and a raw power fused into his game and it creates match-winning abilities.”

Naveen, on the other hand, took at least one wicket in every game he played in the Blast this year, finishing the season with 26 at an average of 17.57 and an economy rate of 8.67 runs per over. He is one of the leading pacers in the Afghanistan national side at the moment in their ongoing T20 World Cup campaign.
“It was an easy decision when I was told that the club was keen on re-signing me for the 2022 season,” Naveen said in a press release. “There was interest from a few other counties, but I enjoyed my time in Leicestershire last season and felt at home here so much, with special thanks to Paul [Nixon, the club’s head coach]”, said Naveen.
Leicestershire finished sixth in the nine-team North Group last year, missing out on the quarter-finals by three points,

 

 

Post Edited By: Gurpreet Singh
Leicestershire Naveen ul Haq Rahmanullah Gurbaz

About the author

Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh is a Cricket writer at The Sportsrush. His platonic relationship with sports had always been there since childhood, but Cricket managed to strike a special, intimate nerve of his heart. Although his initial dream of playing the sport at the highest level couldn't come to fruition, Gurpreet did represent the state of Jharkhand at the under-14 level. However, almost like taking a pledge to never let the undying passion for Cricket fade away even a tad, he made sure to continue the love relationship by assigning the field of journalism as an indirect Cupid. He thus, first finished his bachelor's in journalism and then pursued the PG Diploma course in English journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Soon after and since 2019, he has been working at The Sportsrush. Apart from sports, he takes keen interest in politics, and in understanding women and gender-related issues.

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