Rahmat Shah Zurmatai (Pashto: رحمت شاه زرمتی; born 6 July 1993) is an Afghan cricketer who plays for the Afghanistan national cricket team. He is a right-handed batsman and an occasional leg break bowler.[1] He made his international debut in an ODI against Scotland in March 2013.[2] He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018. In September 2019, in the one-off Test between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Rahmat scored Afghanistan's first century in Test cricket.[3]
In May 2018, Rahmat was named in Afghanistan's squad for their inaugural Test match, played against India.[11][12] He made his Test debut for Afghanistan, against India, on 14 June 2018.[13] In February 2019, he was named in Afghanistan's Test squad for their one-off match against Ireland in India.[14][15]
In April 2019, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) named Shah as the team's new Test captain, replacing Asghar Afghan.[19][20] However, following the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Rashid Khan was named as the new captain of the Afghanistan cricket team across all three formats.[21] Therefore, Rahmat was replaced before captaining the team in a Test match.[22]
In September 2019, Rahmat scored a century in the one-off Test match against Bangladesh, becoming the first batsman for Afghanistan to score a century in a Test match.[23]
In January 2024, Shah was named in Afghanistan's Twenty20 International (T20I) squads for their series against India.[24] On 11 January 2024, He made his T20I debut for Afghanistan against India.[25]
In December 2024, he made his maiden Test match double century in the first of a two-match series against against Zimbabwe.[26] His 234 was also the highest score by an Afghan batter in a Test match that point,[27][28][29] although it was surpassed by teammate Hashmatullah Shahidi who made 246 later in the same match.[30]
