AFG vs ZIM: Composed Hashmatullah Shahidi Becomes 1st From Afghanistan To Scale 'Mount 200'

Hashmatullah Shahidi was aged 9 when he started taking cricket seriously and his father took him to a club in Kabul. At the age of 24, he played in a World Cup for Afghanistan and on Thursday, 26-year

Shahidi idolizes batting great Kumar Sangakkara, who was the first Sri Lankan to score more than 12,000 runs in Test cricket and likes taking innings as deep as possible, testified by his gritty knock during the second Test.

"I liked watching Sangakkara play. I always watched him and never missed his games, he was my role model. We always struggle in ODIs to play the full 50 overs so I try to stay there till the last overs," said Shahidi.

"I want to score 100s and want to achieve a lot of things for my country. I want to be in the list of top players," he said.

He says that the knowledge that his mother is watching is what motivates him to pick himself up whenever he gets hit on the field, as he was off England fast bowler Chris Woakes during their match in the 2019 World Cup. Afghanistan, chasing an improbable target of 398, lost the game by 150 runs but Shahidi batted as deep as possible and was his team's highest scorer with 76 runs.

"My mother is watching all the time. When I got hit and fell down (against Chris Woakes in the World Cup match against England), I was only thinking about my mother. I said to myself just get up, what will she think. My helmet was broken but I thought that I don't want to hurt her and so just get up and play," said Shahidi.

During the ongoing second Test, Shahidi didn't have too many short ball missiles to deal with as he and Afghan, and later Nasir Jamil who himself scored an unbeaten 55, ran the Zimbabwe bowlers ragged.