Afghanistan - the land of spinners, is also a factory for some emerging fast bowlers. Farid Malik is one of the finished products of that factory. His traits are bowling sharp left-arm pace and Malik has shown the prowess to pick up the baton of the Afghan pace battery. 

Born in Nangarhar, the left-arm pacer first emerged, in January 2014, when he claimed figures of 7 for 21 to bowl out the Pakistan U-19 team for 52 in a 214-run romp for Afghanistan. Six months later, he destroyed Zimbabwe A, on his first-class debut, with 5 for 54.

The former U-19 cricketer soon graduated to play for the senior team, as he debuted in December of 2014. Although Malik didn’t get regular opportunities due to Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Zadran who were handling the pace job, but the left-armer has always been in the scheme of things.

Since 2016, the Nangarhar-born has been regularly playing for the national team, at least in the T20I format. However, the emergence of Naveen-ul-Haq and their spin forte make things difficult for Malik. 

(As of October 2021)