Who is Allah Ghazanfar? MI shell out 4.80 crore for Afghanistan mystery spinner

Mumbai Indians (MI) bought Afghanistan spinner Allag Ghazanfar for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) also fought hard to bag the young mystery spinner, but in the end, MI bagged the tweaker.
IPL 2025 Mega Auction, Day 2 Updates
Last year, Ghazanfar was a part of the Knight Riders, but did not get to play a single match. This time around, he will be playing under Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. He is only the second specialist spinner in the MI camp after Karn Sharma, who was bought by the five-time champion at his base price of INR 50 lakhs.
The Paktia-born Ghazanfar is yet to make his T20I debut, but in 16 T20 matches thus far in his career, he has taken 29 wickets with two four-wicket hauls. The teenager, however, has played eight ODIs and has picked up 12 wickets at an economy rate of 4.36.
Earlier this month, Ghazanfar rattled the Bangladesh batting lineup in the first ODI of the three-match series at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. He finished with figures of 6.3-1-26-6 and won the Player of the Match award after the Afghans won by 92 runs.
Ghazanfar also played in the Men’s Emerging Asia Cup in Oman, where Afghanistan won the title. He also got the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh in the match against India.
Ghazanfar also played for Team Abu Dhabi in the T10 League, Mis Ainak Knights in the Cricket Shpageeza League and Colombo Strikers in the Lanka Premier League (LPL).
In the auction taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Knights started the bidding after which the Challengers joined in. At Rs 2.20 crore, RCB backed out after which MI entered the bidding. The Knights tried their best to get back the mystery spinner, but in the end, MI bagged him.