Arafat Minhas made his debut and Pakistan’s 1000th ODI memorable.Image Credit source: Getty Images
The 3 ODI series between Pakistan and Australia has started and a special history was created in the very first match. With the first match of the series in Rawalpindi, Pakistan cricket team completed 1000 matches in ODI format. In this 1000th ODI match, spinner Arafat Minhas made his debut for Pakistan and took 5 wickets in his very first match. In this way, Arafat became the first bowler to do so in Pakistan’s ODI cricket history.
In the first match of the series on Saturday 30th May at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistani team came out to bowl first. The Australian team is entering this series without many of its big players, while the Pakistani team is playing with almost full strength. However, in the very first match, the Pakistani team gave a chance to 21-year-old spinner Arafat Minhas to make his ODI debut and this decision proved to be right.
Minhas was hit by taking 5 wickets in debut
Left arm orthodox spinner Minhas came to bowl for the first time in the 8th over. He hit 2 boundaries in his first 2 overs but then in the next 8 overs the Australian batsmen could not hit even a single boundary. Then Arafat’s game started, where he took 3 wickets in just 6 balls between 14th and 16th over. His first wicket was Australian captain Josh Inglis. Then he also killed Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green.
ARAFAT MINHAS ON ODI DEBUT…!!! 🔥
– Dismissed Green, Inglis, Labuschagne & Short.
– First Pakistani to take a five wicket haul on the ODI debut.
– Finished with 5/32 in 10 overs.
– Conceded only two boundaries.
pic.twitter.com/ve2Sva1MKi— Sherry. (@CallMeSheri1_) May 30, 2026
His next victim became Matthew Short and then in his last over, Arafat Minhas completed 5 wickets by dismissing Nathan Ellis. In his 10 over spell, this spinner spent only 32 runs and sent back 5 batsmen to the pavilion. In this way, he became the first bowler in the history of Pakistan’s 1000 ODI matches to take 5 wickets on debut. With the help of this strong performance, Pakistan bowled out Australia for just 200 runs in 44.1 overs.
How did Arafat Minhas get recognition?
Arafat Minhas came into limelight for the first time since the Under-19 World Cup 2024 and then left his mark in the Pakistani T20 league PSL. Arafat, who comes from Multan, bats with his left hand and is also a left-arm spinner. Before ODI, he had debuted for Pakistan in T20 cricket. He made his debut for Pakistan against Hong Kong during the Asian Games 2022. In the 4 T20I matches he has played so far, he has scored 60 runs and taken 4 wickets.
In the Under-19 World Cup 2024, he bowled very economically and took 8 wickets at an average of 9.87, while he also played a strong inning of 52 runs in the semi-final against Australia. In the 15 matches of PSL, this spin-all-rounder has taken 10 wickets and also scored 155 runs at a strike rate of 158. Apart from this, in 20 List-A matches i.e. ODI matches, he has scored 439 runs along with taking 18 wickets.
