Maaz Sadaqat wins Asia Cup 2025 player of the tournament award | The Express Tribune

In a space of just 11 months, Peshawar-born Maaz Sadaqat has compiled an admirable list of achievements and gained experience in different cricketing environments.

The Pakistan Cricket Board put up a feature on Maaz which highlighting his achievements and his insights into his career so far.

He won player of the match award on his HBL PSL debut, which included a 102-run stand with Babar Azam, finished runners-up with Peshawar in both the National T20 Cup and Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and faced South Africa’s full-strength attack in a warm-up match before the ICC Champions Trophy in Karachi. Additionally, he toured England and Australia with Pakistan Shaheens, struck a century against Adelaide Strikers in the Top End T20 in Darwin, scored his second first-class century for Peshawar, won Hong Kong Super Sixes and most recently earned the player of the tournament award in Pakistan Shaheens’ successful campaign in ACC Men’s Asia Cup Rising Stars in Doha.

Reflecting on a very busy yet fruitful fifth year as a professional cricketer and first out of teenage, Maaz says, “It has been a great year exposure-wise especially with three Shaheens tours, domestic cricket, Hong Kong Sixes and now the Nepal Premier League. I have been making short stops at home in Peshawar between all these engagements and the last time I left home after coming from Doha, my mother welled up seeing me for such a short time but she is also so proud of seeing me do well after all we have gone through as a family.”

Maaz has so far played 24 first-class, 20 List A and 25 T20 matches. His latest statement and one which has brought him a lot of recognition was the 258 runs in five innings – the most in Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 – and 7-52 in 12 overs with the ball for Pakistan Shaheens.

Reflecting on his stellar all-round form in the tournament, he said “Going into the Rising Stars tournament, I had plenty of belief in me and pledged to myself that I will win it for my team. All the hard work I have done prior to this season has paid off.”

Five of Maaz’s seven wickets in the competition included top-order batters (Nos. 1 to 5) and he finished with a miserly average of 7.43 and economy of 4.3. He says the cut-throat environment he experienced in the Hong Kong Sixes as a bowler benefited him in the 20-over tournament.

“In the Hong Kong Sixes, even if you went for three sixes, it was considered a good over and the boundaries were short. But just a few days later when I bowled in Doha, I felt near to no pressure because the moments felt less intense and I eased into my bowling role well, which helped our team.”

Maaz has batted on various surfaces and faced a variety of bowling attacks during his sojourns with Peshawar Zalmi, Shaheens and Peshawar in domestic cricket across the formats and showcased his rich run-scoring form and a solid technique.

The challenge of switching between white-ball and red-ball does not bother him much as he believes, “In modern day cricket, if you observe that the best batters are almost batting with the same kind of tempo across formats, so I tend to follow the same rule for myself and look to get going wherever I am batting.”

Preparing meticulously before every series or tournament has been the cornerstone of all the success he has reaped so far and his regional head coach and former KP teammate Raffatullah Mohmand testifies, “Apart from being a quick learner and skilled cricketer, Maaz’s success also lies in in-depth preparation of all the challenges fronting him.

“Right from the moment he shot into regional and provincial squads of KP and Peshawar as a teenager, he started observing and talking to all the experienced players like Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Sahibzada Farhan. He took out leaves from their playbooks and applied that in his trainings and preparation, which have paced up his progress.”

Raffatullah rated him high from the early days and arranged for him a contract in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League 2023 for the City Club, where he made his List A debut in Savar and scored 128 runs in six matches including a fifty and picked up four wickets as an 18-year-old.

“I have myself played a few seasons there in Dhaka and a friend of mine contacted in 2023 that they needed an all-rounder so I decided to recommend Maaz for that gig because he had impressed us all in Peshawar and he deserved maximum exposure”, recalls Raffatullah, who became Pakistan’s T20I cap #65 against England in 2015

Talking about his journey, Maaz recollected that his elder brother – Haroon Sadaqat, who played 10 first-class games for FATA in 2016 and has made a comeback to the four-day game after nine years in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy season for the same team – took him to Ashnaghar Cricket Club in Peshawar after he had passed matriculation.

“I was a school kid and was hitting big sixes in my first club cricket game and everyone was super impressed, after which my brother and my family decided to let me appear in trials, which helped me become a part of PCB’s pathways stream.

“I played district cricket for Peshawar U19, then became second top scorer in PCB’s Regional U19 tournament for KP and was selected in Pakistan U19 for 2021 U19 Asia Cup in Dubai and ICC U19 World Cup 2022 in West Indies.”

Like many young batters in Pakistan, he envisioned himself batting with Pakistan’s latest entrant to 15,000 international runs club Babar Azam and his dream finally came to life when he was picked by Peshawar Zalmi in HBL PSL X.

“During the pre-tournament training sessions, apart from training with him and learning different aspects of the game, I also told Babar how I had always wanted to bat alongside him. It felt great to be living through those moments as a young player.”

Maaz’s long wait to bat with Babar ended when Peshawar Zalmi handed him the HBL PSL debut and slipped to 38-3 in 5.5 overs chasing 144 against Islamabad United at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on 2 May. The duo remained in the middle for 62 balls in a game-changing century partnership, where Maaz hit four fours and three sixes in his 33-ball 55.

“With Babar at the other end, I felt no pressure and I turned to my natural game acquiring more belief. That time also helped me realise how much I have trained all my life to get here and do well. I felt a lot more motivated to showcase my skills and win the game for my team.”

The left-hander – who had amassed 646 runs in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2024-25 at a strike rate of 71 including his much-awaited maiden first-class century – got the selection nod for Pakistan Shaheens’ tour to England from 22 July to 6 August. “In England I learned a lot about how conditions can vary when you go abroad. The ball was swinging and seaming a lot. It taught me a few things about my batting despite not being able to score big.”

PCB’s efforts in keeping an active Pakistan Shaheens programme with three overseas tours in a space of five months this year has paid dividends in player development with a number of players including Maaz growing in confidence and skill. “I was part of all three Shaheens tours after doing well in domestic cricket and that has been genuinely eye opening for me. The overseas tours right after domestic performances have helped us all in finding ways to face the challenges that international cricket presents. Domestic cricket then feels slightly easy when we return from such tours.

Maaz struck 104 off 59 balls against Adelaide Strikers at Darwin’s Marrara Cricket Ground in the Top End T20 on 20 August, after he was asked to open the batting for Pakistan Shaheens, having appeared in the middle order and getting to face a handful of balls in previous four games.

“Our team management decided to open with me midway and I repaid the confidence with a century. I made full use of the field restrictions hitting shots in my zone and reverted to strike rotation coupled with a boundary almost each over. My appetite to build the innings increased when I failed to impress in England during the three-day and 50-over matches.”

In the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2025-26 he featured in three matches where he made his presence felt against Abbottabad, making 114 off 140 balls hitting 11 fours and one six with a strike rate of 81. In alliance with Israrullah – another southpaw from Peshawar with an experience of 133 first-class games – Maaz batted for 50.5 overs as the duo gathered 213 runs for the third wicket.

As Maaz continues to learn and develop with a better part of the 2025-26 domestic cricket season remaining, fans and pundits alike will anticipate more marvelous performances from the batting all-rounder. Maaz on the other hand, will surely look to find more ways to outsmart oppositions as he grows in confidence, demand and value on the field and on the screens.