| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sikandar Raza Butt | |||
| Born | 24 April 1986 Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan |
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| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Right arm medium | |||
| Role | Opening Batsman | |||
| International information | ||||
| National side | Zimbabwe | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 2007-09 | Northerns | |||
| 2009-present | Mashonaland Eagles | |||
| 2010-present | Southern Rocks (Twenty20 team) | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | FC | LA | T20 | |
| Matches | 18 | 16 | 11 | |
| Runs scored | 1023 | 348 | 317 | |
| Batting average | 34.10 | 21.75 | 28.81 | |
| 100s/50s | 1/7 | 0/2 | 0/3 | |
| Top score | 146 | 80 | 93 | |
| Balls bowled | 459 | 95 | 66 | |
| Wickets | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| Bowling average | 40.14 | 37.50 | 49.00 | |
| 5 wickets in innings | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Best bowling | 3/26 | 1/5 | 1/20 | |
| Catches/stumpings | 16/- | 5/- | 2/- | |
| Source: [Cricinfo], 22 October 2011 | ||||
Sikandar Raza Butt (born 24 April, 1986, Sialkot, Pakistan) is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean cricketer. Despite being born in Pakistan, he emigrated to Zimbabwe in 2001 along with his family and team-mate Sad Khan. Although there are speculations that Zimbabwe Cricket brought them to add depth to the Logan Cup squads. He soon became one of the best batsman in the domestic game and caught the selectorial eye. The only problem was citizenship issues, which was granted in 2011.[1]
Raza started his career in Zimbabwe in 2007. He made his first-class debut for Northerns in 2007.[2] After the revamping of Zimbabwe's domestic structure in 2009, he went on to play first-class cricket for the Mashonaland Eagles he himself is a successful first-class cricketer, with a top score of 146.
He also played List A cricket originally for Northerns but later switched to play for Mashonaland Eagles. He made his List A debut in 2007.[3]
He made his Twenty20 debut for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers.[4]
He turned out to be a T20 specialist, and he was the leading run-scorer in the 2010 Stanbic Bank 20 Competition.
In the Metbank Pro40 Championship Final in 2010, he scored a brilliant 44 for Southern Rocks as they cruised to the title against Mid West Rhinos. It was the first big performance that caught the selectorial eye.[5] In January 2011, he compiled his career best List-A score of 80.
His performances earned him a place in the preliminary squad for Zimbabwe's 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign, but did not make it to the final squads. By then he had another fine performance, at the Masvingo Sports Club where his opening stand of 161 with Chamu Chibhabha simply by bludgeoning the Matabeleland Tuskers bowlers led the foundation for a massive Southern Rocks victory.[6]
This made the Zimbabwean selectors select him for the training squad for the Australia A and South Africa A tri-series.[7] The only matter, was he did not have citizenship status,[8] which was granted in September 2011.[9] [10] By then he had another remarkable performance scoring 93 off just 48 balls for Southern Rocks against Matabeleland Tuskers in just the previous week's Wednesday in a Twenty20 match. Opening the innings with the legendary West Indian Brian Lara and then getting great support from Elton Chigumbura, Raza absolutely tore down the Matabeleland Tuskers's bowling attack.[11] He then represented a Zimbabwe XI side before the Bangladeshi cricket team in Zimbabwe in 2011 tour started. Zimbabwe XI won the two matches.
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