Razaullah Shines in Test Debut Against England
He was meant to be entertaining a few hundred people on a club ground in North East Lincolnshire. Instead, Razaullah walked out at Edgbaston and lit up a Test match.
The 21-year-old all-rounder, who had signed to play for Cleethorpes in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League for the 2026 season, has gone from overseas club recruit to Pakistan’s newest sensation in the space of a few extraordinary weeks.
Called into a Pakistan training camp in May, his Cleethorpes move never actually happened. Any lingering disappointment on the east coast will have been mixed with a fair amount of pride when they saw what he did in Birmingham.
On Test debut against England last week, Razaullah swung with the fearlessness of a street cricketer and the power of a seasoned pro. He smashed nine sixes in a blistering 81 from just 63 balls, announcing himself on the international stage with the kind of innings that makes selectors look very smart and club chairmen shake their heads in disbelief.
At Chichester Road, they knew he was good. They just never got to show him off.
“He’s an exceptional talent,” said Cleethorpes Cricket Club chairman Paul Hewstone, still half marvelling at what might have been. The club had secured his signature in April, a coup for a side fishing in the competitive waters of league cricket, and were simply waiting for his arrival.
Then the phone rang.
First came the Pakistan Super League. His trip to North East Lincolnshire was pushed back, understandable when a major T20 competition wants a young all-rounder who can clear the ropes and take wickets. Cleethorpes waited, hopeful it was just a brief delay.
It wasn’t. “Sadly, after that he was called into a national training camp, and at the end of May we had to decide it wasn't going to happen,” Hewstone said.
That decision closed one door and flung another wide open. The “young lad who probably wanted a bit of a chance”, as Hewstone described their original brief, had suddenly outgrown the chance they could offer.
Razaullah had been a punt with serious upside. When he was recommended to Cleethorpes, he had only eight first-class matches behind him. Yet the numbers already hinted at something more: a first-class hundred in the book and a five-wicket haul to his name. Runs, wickets, impact. The raw materials were all there.
For Pakistan, those raw materials crystallised in a matter of balls.
On just the fourth delivery of his Test career, he removed Joe Root – England’s most prolific modern batter, a man who has spent a decade turning debutants into nervous wrecks. It was the sort of early strike that changes how a dressing room looks at you.
Then came the moment that will live longest in the highlights reels. Facing Jofra Archer, one of the fastest and most intimidating quicks in the world, Razaullah didn’t flinch. He launched him for two straight sixes, clean and brutal, straight back over the bowler’s head. Not slogged. Owned.
Asked if this was a star in the making, Hewstone didn’t hesitate. “He absolutely must be, to do what he has done,” he said. You can hear the mix of admiration and what-if in every word.
Because if things had broken differently, those same wrists would have been whipping balls over the short boundary at Cleethorpes, those same shoulders rolling into the wind on a chilly Saturday, giving “the crowd at Chichester Road something to look at”, as Hewstone put it.
Instead, the crowd was thousands strong at Edgbaston, with millions more watching from living rooms and phones around the world. The stage changed. The talent didn’t.
Cleethorpes lost their overseas signing. Pakistan may just have found the heartbeat of their next generation.
