Noor Ahmad

Profile details

FULL NAME

Noor Ahmad

PLAYING ROLE

Bowler

TEAMS

Dubai Capitals

The wrist-spinner nobody picks

Noor Ahmad's rise has been fast even by Afghan standards. He played in the Under-19 World Cup as a teenager, was signed by Gujarat Titans for the IPL, and has become a regular in Afghanistan's white-ball sides before his 21st birthday. His bowling is left-arm wrist-spin — the rarest and hardest to read of the spin arts — and his googly turns the other way to his stock ball, which means batters have to guess. In T20 cricket, guessing wrong means getting out.

• Role: Bowler
• Team: Dubai Capitals
• Batting: Left-handed
• Bowling: Left-arm wrist-spin
• Born: 3 January 2005

He has played franchise cricket around the world, including the Big Bash and the Caribbean Premier League, and his record in the ILT20 is the reason the Capitals pre-signed him. Wrist-spinners win T20 tournaments: they take wickets in the middle overs, they break partnerships, and they make chasing sides nervous. Noor Ahmad is the Capitals' version.

The middle-overs weapon

Noor Ahmad's job is the middle overs, roughly overs seven to fifteen, where T20 matches are decided. Du Plessis will throw him the ball when a partnership is building, and his brief is simple: take a wicket. His economy matters less than his strike rate, because a wicket in the middle overs does more damage than ten dot balls. Paired with Aayan Afzal Khan's finger spin, he gives the Capitals ten overs of left-arm spin with two completely different problems.

He is also young enough to improve quickly. At 21, with an IPL contract and an international career already under way, his Season 5 is a chance to show he belongs in the conversation with the world's best young spinners. A strong tournament here puts him in line for bigger contracts everywhere.

Spin is the champions' identity now

Dubai Capitals' bowling is built on spin in a way few T20 sides are: Noor Ahmad, Aayan Afzal Khan, Hassan Khan and Zuhaib Zubair give du Plessis four spin options, and the Dubai pitches reward them. The ball grips, the batters cannot trust the bounce, and the spinners bowl with the field up. That is the champions' plan for defending totals — and Noor Ahmad is the bowler it starts with.

What’s next

The champions open at home, and the middle overs belong to their wrist-spinner: Abu Dhabi Knight Riders on Sunday 22 November, in the evening in Dubai.

• Match 3 — vs Abu Dhabi Knight Riders: Sunday 22 November 2026, evening session, Dubai.
• Match 6 — vs Desert Vipers: Wednesday 25 November 2026, evening session, Dubai.
• Match 8 — vs Sharjah Warriorz: Friday 27 November 2026, evening session, Sharjah.

Qualifier 1 is on Tuesday 16 December, the Eliminator on Wednesday 17 December, Qualifier 2 on Friday 18 December in Sharjah, and the final on Sunday 20 December in Dubai.

The full list of every ILT20 fixture is on the ILT20 Schedule page. Follow every result as it happens on SialTV, with the points table updated after every match day.