Najeeb Tarakai, the Afghanistan top-order right-hand batsman, has died at age 29 after succumbing to injuries sustained in a road accident, an Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) tweet confirmed on Tuesday. The ACB had tweeted on Saturday that Tarakai was "severely injured in a car accident" on October 2 and had subsequently undergone a surgery. He was being treated in Nangarhar at the time and the ACB had said he would be shifted to "Kabul or outside Afghanistan as soon as possible whenever allowed by health officials."
Tarakai's last appearance in competitive cricket came last month in the Shpageeza Premier League, making 32 for Mis Ainak Knights. Najeeb was hit by a passing car while crossing the road from a grocery market at Eastern Nangarhar. "ACB and Afghanistan Cricket Loving Nation mourns the heart breaking and grievous loss of its aggressive opening batsman & a very fine human being Najeeb Tarakai (29) who lost his life to a tragic traffic accident leaving us all shocked," Afghanistan Cricket Board tweeted.
Tarakai, who made his first-class debut against Zimbabwe A in 2014, was a consistent performer in first-class cricket and averaged 47.2 in 24 games. In April last year, he notched up his highest first-class score of 200 against Mis Ainak Region. He also played 12 T20Is and one ODI for his country. He compiled his highest score (90) in T20Is versus Ireland in Noida in 2017. Tarakai also played 24 first-class games, scoring 2030 runs at an average of 47.20. He hit six first-class centuries and ten fifties. He has also picked up 21 wickets in first-class and 1 wicket in List A. In 1 ODI he scored 5 runs while in 12 T20Is he scored 258 runs averaging 21.5 with 1 fifty.
