Mohammad Shahzad Mohammadi (Pashto: محمد شهزاد محمدي; born 10 January 1988) is an Afghan cricketer who has represented his country in all three international formats.
His strong performances in the tournament helped Afghanistan obtain One Day International status and he has been a regular part of their national team in all three formats of the game since then.
[11][12] Shahzad scored a half-century in the Intercontinental Cup final against Scotland to give Afghanistan the title in their first year of participation.
[13] He finished the tournament as the top run-scorer for both Afghanistan and the whole competition, with 802 runs at an average of 80.20, including two centuries and five half-centuries.
[16] Shahzad scored a half-century in Afghanistan's opening match of the 2011–13 ICC Intercontinental Cup against Canada,[17] but otherwise failed to have a major impact on the tournament.
[21] Shahzad bounced back in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup and scored his third and fourth first-class centuries against Papua New Guinea and Namibia respectively.
[30] Shahzad made his ODI debut during Afghanistan's tour to the Netherlands on 30 August 2009 at VRA Cricket Ground.
[32] Shahzad was a member of Afghanistan's 2010 ACC Trophy Elite winning squad, which defeated Nepal in the final by 95 runs.
[36][37] In February 2010, Shahzad made his Twenty20 International debut against Ireland as part of a tri-series in the lead-up to the 2010 World Twenty20 Qualifier.
In a two-match Twenty20 series against Scotland in March 2013, Shahzad made scores of 55 and 46 and was named the player of the match in both games.
[46] Shahzad played two explosive innings in the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, making scores of 74 against the United Arab Emirates and 75 against Scotland.
[51] Later in an interview, Shahzad said that he had no health problem but despite, that he was removed from the World Cup matches by the Afghan cricket board.
[54] In September 2016, Shahzad was signed by the Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) ahead of the draft for the 2016 season.
He scored two centuries in the tournament and was named the player of the match on both occasions,[68][69] and he helped Spin Ghar reach the final, where they lost to the Boost Defenders.
In the 2010–11 season, he played three matches for Port Qasim Authority in Grade II of the PCB Patron's Trophy,[73][74][75] and he played two matches as a wicket-keeper and opening batsman for Habib Bank Limited in the 2015–16 National One Day Cup, scoring 43 runs against Khan Research Laboratories and 15 runs against National Bank of Pakistan.
On 7 April 2009, during the 2009 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, Shahzad was reprimanded by the ICC for showing dissent at an umpire's decision.
Shahzad decided not to challenge the provisional suspension and had to face disciplinary proceeding in accordance with the process set down in the ICC Anti-Doping Code.
[89] In December 2017, the ICC suspended Shahzad from all cricket for a period of twelve months,[90] and he was eligible to resume playing from 17 January 2018.
On 8 March 2018, during the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, Shahzad was suspended by the ICC after being found guilty of causing damage to part of the ground during a match.
As this was Shahzad's second violation of the ICC's code of conduct within a two-year period, (he had been fined the entirety of his match fee for an incident in a Twenty20 against the United Arab Emirates in December 2016) he was given a two-match suspension.