Ali Hamid

Ali Hamid is one of Zimbabwe’s brightest young batting talents. A classy right-hander that can bat anywhere in the top 5, he has emerged as one of the country’s most exciting cricketers. Ali is also a tidy right-arm spinner, bowling both Off & Leg Spin albeit sparingly at the professional level. He is currently contracted to the Tuskers Franchise in the Zimbabwe Domestic System.

A versatile cricketer, Ali is as comfortable facing the new ball in white-ball cricket as he is batting in the middle order, his preferred slot in the longer format. A clean hitter of the ball, he plays his club cricket for the Takashinga Patriots and whispers along the halls of Zimbabwe Cricket suggest he is a genuine long term option for the Chevrons.

Coming from a Cricketing family, his father, Abid, is a former manager of Zimbabwe A and liaison officer for visiting teams, so it’s no surprise Ali was introduced to the game from a very young age. Having been around national team stars growing up, he took inspiration from not only Sikandar Raza, a player he’s been likened to since his emergence in the professional game, but his brother, Saad Khan.

Ali debuted at the professional level for the Mashonaland Eagles in the domestic T20 competition at the back end of the 2021-22 summer and within 12 months, he’d debuted across all three formats. Whilst his white-ball success has been limited with the Bat, he did bag 3-21 in his 50-over debut with the ball. He has, however, found success in the longer format, with his style suiting the 4-day game, scoring 3 hundreds in his first 11 games at First Class level, with all three coming within a prolific 4 week window in Jan/Feb 2024 and finishing as the 3rd highest run scorer in the Logan Cup with 674 runs @ 48.14.

Seeking his first season in the UK in 2024, Ali joined Taunton Deane CC in the WEPL League, scoring 799 runs @ 34.74 in a steady first UK outing.

Ali will be a good pick up for any UK club seeking a high-class top order batsman for this summer who is keen to push on and use the experience to press his claims for a slot in the Test team.