Sikandar Raza Butt is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman who bowls right arm off-spin and plays as an all-rounder. He made his international debut for Zimbabwe in May 2013.

Born in Sialkot, Raza emigrated to Zimbabwe in 2002 along with his family. He soon became one of the best batsman in the domestic competition and caught the eyes of the Zimbabwean selectors. The only problem was citizenship issues, which was granted in 2011.

Early life

Raza was born in Sialkot to a Punjabi speaking Kashmiri family. He studied at the Pakistan Air Force Public School Lower Topa for three years and aspired to be a Pakistan Air Force pilot, but his dreams were cut short when he failed a vision test that was mandatory for selection in the Pakistan airforce at that time.

In 2002, Raza moved with his family to Zimbabwe. He went to Scotland, where he pursued a bachelor's degree in software engineering at the Glasgow Caledonian University.

It was here where Raza played semi-professional cricket, realising his potential.

Domestic and T20 franchise career

After the revamping of Zimbabwe's domestic structure in 2009, Raza went on to play first-class cricket for the Mashonaland Eagles. He made his first-class debut on 12 April 2007 for Northerns against Easterns during the 2007 Logan Cup. He is a successful first-class cricketer, with a top score of 146.

Raza also played List A cricket originally for Northerns but later switched to play for Mashonaland Eagles. He made his List A debut in 2007. He made his Twenty20 debut for the Southern Rocks in 2010 against the Desert Vipers. Raza turned out to be a T20 specialist, and was the leading run-scorer in the 2010 Stanbic Bank T20 Competition.

In the Metbank Pro40 Championship Final in 2010, Raza scored a brilliant 44 for Southern Rocks as they cruised to the title against Mid West Rhinos. It was his first big performance that caught the selectorial eye. In January 2011, he achieved his career best List-A score of 80 runs.

Raza's performances earned him a place in the preliminary squad for Zimbabwe's 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign, but did not make it to the final 15 man squad. By then, he had another fine performance, at the Masvingo Sports Club, where his opening stand of 161 with Chamu Chibhabha, simply by bludgeoning the Matabeleland Tuskers bowlers, led the foundation for a massive Southern Rocks victory. This made the Zimbabwean selectors select Raza for the training squad for the Australia A and South Africa A tri-series. The only matter, was he did not have citizenship status, which was granted to him in September 2011. By then, he had another remarkable performance, scoring 93 off just 48 balls for Southern Rocks against Matabeleland Tuskers.

Opening the innings with the legendary West Indian Brian Lara and then getting great support from Elton Chigumbura, Raza took on the Matabeleland Tuskers's bowling attack. He then represented a Zimbabwe XI side before the Bangladesh tour to Zimbabwe started. Zimbabwe XI won the two matches.

On 3 June 2018, Raza was selected to play for the Montreal Tigers in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the Global T20 Canada tournament.

In October 2018, Raza was named in Tshwane Spartans' squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament. Later the same month, he was named in the squad for the Chittagong Vikings team, following the draft for the 2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League.

In July 2019, Raza was selected to play for the Amsterdam Knights in the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled. In July 2020, he was named in the Trinbago Knight Riders squad for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.

In December 2020, Raza was selected to play for the Southern Rocks in the 2020–21 Logan Cup. In December 2022, Raza was drafted by the Lahore Qalandars as their Gold Category round pick at the 2023 PSL draft.

In December 2022, Raza was bought by the Punjab Kings in the 2023 Indian Premier League for 50 Lakhs. He made his IPL debut for Punjab Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders on 1 April 2023, scoring 16 off 13 balls and taking the figures of 1-25 from 3 overs. On 15 April 2023, he claimed his maiden IPL half-century, scoring 57 runs of 41 balls helping his team to defeat Lucknow Super Giants by 2 wickets. With this, he also became the first Zimbabwean player to score a half-century in IPL.

International career

Raza made his ODI debut for Zimbabwe in May 2013 against Bangladesh and scored only three runs batting at number three thus becoming the 116th player to appear for Zimbabwe in the format. He also became the first non-residential player to represent Zimbabwe at international level.

Raza scored 82 off 112 balls with 6 fours and two sixes against India during the first of the five match home bilateral ODI series in 2013 which was also only his 4th ODI appearance. He made his test debut on 3 September 2013 and scored 60 runs on his debut against Pakistan at Harare Sports Club, in which he had a 127-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Malcolm Waller that put the hosts on course for the lead. Despite scoring a half-century on his Test debut, he was dropped from the team when Zimbabwean captain Brendan Taylor returned to the team.

Raza made his T20I debut on 5 November 2013 against Bangladesh. He is also the youngest person to hit a fifty in T20I. He achieved this feat when he was just above 17 years old. He scored his maiden ODI century against Afghanistan in July 2014, while opening the batting helping Zimbabwe to register a convincing victory over Afghanistan by eight wickets. He also set the record for the highest individual score by a Zimbabwe batsman in an ODI run chase as well as successful ODI run chase with 141. During the run chase, he along with Hamilton Masakadza set the highest partnership for any wicket for Zimbabwe in their ODI history as the duo added 224 runs for the opening wicket which made the run chase look so easy.

He was part of the Zimbabwean squad for the 2015 Cricket World Cup tournament. Although his World Cup performance with the bat was not up to the level of expectations, he impressed many by his bowling. Raza was named stand-in captain in the second T20I during the India tour of Zimbabwe in 2015. Before this, he captained four times for Mash Eagles in domestic cricket in 2012. He led Zimbabwe in their first win of the tour by 10 runs.

In August 2022, during the first of the three match ODI series against Bangladesh at home, Raza scored an unbeaten 135 to propel Zimbabwe to their first ever ODI win over Bangladesh since 2013 and he was awarded the player of the match award. His innings of 135* came in a competitive run chase of 304 and it is also the highest individual score by a batsman in ODI cricket in a successful run chase while batting at no 5 and lower. He along with teammate Innocent Kaia became only the second pair of batsmen for Zimbabwe after Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine to score centuries in same ODI innings for Zimbabwe. Both Raza and Kaia added crucial 192 runstand which was Zimbabwe's fourth highest ever partnership for any wicket. He also became only the second Zimbabwean after Craig Ervine to score two centuries in successful ODI run chases. He scored his second successive century in a row during the second ODI of the series. He was awarded player of the match for his strong all-round performance both with the bat and ball which helped Zimbabwe to win the match quite comprehensively by five wickets to take an assailable 2–0. He became the first Zimbabwean to score three ODI centuries in successful ODI run chases and became the first Zimbabwean to score two consecutive centuries in two successive successful ODI chases. During the second ODI, he also added 201 runs with Regis Chakabva for the fifth wicket to guide Zimbabwe to driver's seat from a precarious position. It was also Zimbabwe's highest fifth wicket partnership in ODIs. He was awarded the player of the series for his heroics with the bat and ball throughout the series and it was incredibly Zimbabwe's first ODI series win over Bangladesh since 2013.