Wahidullah Zadran — the youngest story of the 2026 season

Ten years old when the league was first played

Wahidullah Zadran was born in Paktia on 15 November 2007. He bats right-handed, bowls right-arm off-break, and he is the only player in the Paktia squad who was still a school-age child when the league was first played: he was ten years old, turning eleven, when the first APL season was played at Sharjah in October 2018.

Paktia picked him in the Emerging category at the Dubai draft on 3 November 2026, for a reported $10,000, to bowl for a side led by captain Rahmanullah Gurbaz, with Azhar Mahmood as head coach and Waqar Younis as mentor. The 2026-27 season, which starts on 27 December 2026 in the United Arab Emirates, is his first APL season, and the fixture list is still to be confirmed.

He is the youngest player in the squad, and the youngest player on the IPL 2026 auction list, at eighteen years and thirty-one days. He has played two matches in the ILT20 for Gulf Giants, and the rest of his cricket in Afghan domestic and youth cricket.

Full spells, in youth cricket and beyond

Zadran bowls right-arm off-break, he flights the ball rather than firing it in, and his record in youth cricket says he can be trusted with a full spell: he bowled his full ten overs in both of his Under-19 Asia Cup matches in December 2025, and he bowled nine overs against West Indies at the Under-19 World Cup in January 2026.

The numbers back it up. He took 28 wickets in 19 Twenty20 matches at 6.72, as of December 2025, with best figures of 4 for 22 in the Shpageeza League on 29 July 2025. He took 11 wickets in four Youth ODIs against Bangladesh Under-19s in November 2025. His domestic team in the Shpageeza is Boost Defenders, and he has played for Afghanistan Under-19s and Gulf Giants in the ILT20.

What he does not have yet is any APL cricket at all. He has played no APL match, taken no APL wicket and scored no APL run, because the 2026-27 season has not started. That is true of every player in the Paktia squad, since the franchise is new and the 2018 Paktia Panthers were a different club — but it matters more for Zadran than for the senior players around him, who have played franchise cricket all over the world.

No APL numbers yet — a debut at eighteen

Zadran has no APL figures yet. He did not play in 2018, and the 2026-27 season has not started, so his numbers will be filled in once the matches are played.

2026-27 figures will be added here once the matches are played.

A third spin option, at a different pace

Paktia already have two frontline wrist-spinners in Wanindu Hasaranga and Noor Ahmad, and a finger-spinner who bowls at a different pace and attacks the stumps gives the captain a third option through the middle overs. Zadran flights the ball, and he is not bought for one over of mystery spin, but for control across a whole innings.

For an Emerging pick, that is the point. He is not here to win the tournament in week one; he is here to learn in the company of two of the best wrist-spinners in the world, and to be ready when a chance comes.

A new club, a blank record

The format is a double round-robin: five teams, eight league matches each, two against every opponent, and the top four go through to the playoffs. A win is worth two points, and one side goes home after the league stage. Nothing is on the board yet — every team starts on zero, and the first points come after Match 1 on 27 December 2026, when the first ball is bowled at 5:30 PM Afghanistan time (5:00 PM Dubai time) in the UAE. The season ends with the final on Wednesday 20 January 2027.

Paktia are a new club for 2026-27, not a continuation of the 2018 Paktia Panthers. The APL season starts on 27 December 2026 in the UAE, and Zadran’s debut, whenever Paktia hand it to him, will be his first appearance in the tournament.