• Abdullah played for the Sialkot region in the U19 format.
• He made his first-class debut in December 2019.
• He played his first PSL for Quetta Gladiators.

Abdullah Shafique, the centurion from Galle Test, is a native of Sialkot, a city renowned for its production and exportation of sporting products. His father, Shafiq Ahmed, was a former first-class cricketer who played in 26 first-class games. The opening hitter played club cricket at the Amir Waseem Cricket Academy in Sialkot before advancing to the highest level of domestic cricket by representing Sialkot Region at the U16 and U19 levels.

He was selected for the October 2015 Pakistan U19 trip to Sri Lanka and the 2016 and 2017 ACC U19 Asia Cups. The batter performed poorly in the U19 competitions, scoring only 63 runs throughout seven games.

The 2019 implementation of the new domestic structure created a new opportunity for Abdullah. A three-member independent panel comprised of former Test cricketers Misbah-ul-Haq, Nadeem Khan, and Rashid Latif was tasked with reviewing and finalising the six cricket association sides. The panel selected the right-handed batsman for Central Punjab Second XI on the recommendation of Misbah-ul-Haq, Nadeem Khan, and Rashid Latif.

In the 2019-20 three-day Second XI tournament, Abdullah Shafique capitalised on the occasion and scored 545 runs in six matches at an average of 68.13 with two centuries and a half-century.

On his December 2019 first-class debut, Abdullah made sure to catch the attention with a 209-ball 133 to earn a berth in the First XI of Central Punjab’s all-star squad. On 30 September 2020, in his first T20 match, Abdullah scored 102 not out off 58 balls against Southern Punjab at the Multan Cricket Stadium. He hit 11 fours and four sixes. This enabled him to become the only Pakistani batsman to score hundreds on both first-class and Twenty20 debuts.

His domestic exploits earned him a berth in the Pakistan Shaheens squad that toured Sri Lanka in October/November 2021, where he scored 126 runs in two four-day matches, including a century in the second four-day match.

Abdullah Shafique was selected first by Multan Sultans in the 2018 Players Draft for the HBL PSL, however, he did not play throughout the season. In 2022, Abdullah’s debut in the PSL occurred with the Lahore Qalandars, where he scored 251 runs in 11 matches.

In November 2020, the 22-year-old made his international debut against Zimbabwe in a Twenty20 International series, but he quickly rose to prominence in the Test format. Since making his Test debut against Bangladesh in 2021, Abdullah has not looked back. He has amassed 720 runs in six Tests, overtaking the great Javed Miandad as the Pakistan batsman with the highest runs scored after six Tests.

Earlier this year, during Australia’s historic tour of Pakistan, Abdullah Shafique made 397 runs in three Tests, including 136 in the second innings in the Rawalpindi Test. In the Test in Galle, he batted against Sri Lanka’s crafty spinners to score 160 runs unbeaten from 408 balls — the second-most balls faced by a successful run-chaser in Tests.

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