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Rahmanullah Gurbaz Justifies KKR's IPL 2024 Retention With A 'Sublime' 52-Ball Century

image-lqqt8z0tRahmanullah Gurbaz in action at the 2023 World Cup (AP)

Afghanistan opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz blasted a 50-ball century against hosts UAE in the first T20I of their three-match series at Sharjah. The 22-year-old belted seven boundaries and seven towering sixes before he was dismissed by UAE pacer Junaid Siddique, thus top-scoring for his side with a career-best 100 from just 52 balls.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz flays UAE with maiden T20I ton

Opening the Afghanistan innings alongside Hazratullah Zazai, and taking up his side’s run-scoring charge with a 137-run second-wicket partnership with captain Ibrahim Zadran, brash young opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz registered his sixth fifty-plus score in T20Is before converting it into his maiden century in the format.

The wicketkeeper-batsman faced just 52 deliveries in his innings, and crashed seven of them for boundaries and another seven for maximums before his thunderous knock was curtailed by Junaid Siddique in the death overs.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s batting blitz also propelled Afghanistan to a highly competitive 203-run total upfront, after they were put into bat first by UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz recently took the field for Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup in India, where he scored 280 runs across just nine innings at a blistering strike rate of 98.93. The 65 he scored against Pakistan at Chennai even headlined Afghanistan’s historic eight-wicket triumph over their arch-rivals and also set up his side’s best World Cup campaign to date.

Owing to his splendid run at the 2023 World Cup, Gurbaz was retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise for next year’s IPL 2024 season. The KKR management made further additions to their line-up during the IPL 2024 auction on December 19.

The dashing wicketkeeper-batsman made his IPL debut back in 2022 for the Gujarat Titans before he was roped in by the KKR the following year.