BIRMINGHAM: Cricket season returns to England as the 2025 Rothesay County Championship begins on Friday, 4 April — and this year, five Pakistani cricketers will feature in the tournament.
Shan Masood, the captain of Pakistan’s Test team, along with fast bowlers Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Kashif Ali, and spinner Zafar Gohar, will all be in action.
Masood, Hasan, and Gohar will also be part of the squads for the Vitality T20 Blast tournament, which begins in June after the first round of County Championship matches. Masood and Hasan will be available only after completing their commitments with PSL franchises, while Abbas will be available for six matches — three in May and three in September.
Young pacer Kashif has joined Kent but is not part of the squad for their tournament opener against Northamptonshire. Left-arm spinner Gohar will feature at Lord’s for Middlesex in their opening match.
Notably, Gohar will be playing as a local player, having now obtained British citizenship.
Below is a brief profile of the Pakistani players set to play in this year’s County Championship:
Shan Masood
Pakistan Test team captain Masood will represent Leicestershire County Cricket Club across all three formats this year. Now 35, Masood has been a regular in the County Championship in recent seasons.
He enjoyed a spectacular debut season with Derbyshire in 2022, scoring 1,832 runs across 28 matches, which helped earn him a recall to the Pakistan national squad.
He subsequently joined Yorkshire for two seasons, where he led the team back to Division One in 2023. That year, he scored 720 runs, following 520 runs in 2024.
Masood will join Leicestershire — known as the Foxes — at the end of May, in time for the Vitality Blast opener on 31 May. With no Test matches scheduled for Pakistan during this period, he is expected to stay for the entire season.
Hasan Ali
Right-arm fast bowler Hasan returns to Warwickshire for a third consecutive year and is expected to remain with the club until the end of the season.
Despite previous stints being interrupted by injury and national duty, Hasan has become a fan favourite at Edgbaston.
In 2023, he took 24 wickets in the County Championship during the first half of the season. Though he missed the start of the T20 Blast due to injury, he recovered and played a few matches before departing at the end of his contract.
In 2024, he returned to Warwickshire, but after just a couple of games, he was recalled to Pakistan’s white-ball squad for the series against England.
He played five matches in the T20 Blast, claiming 10 wickets, before an elbow injury ruled him out for the rest of the season.
Hasan will rejoin the Bears’ squad on 29 May, just ahead of the T20 Blast, and is available to play in all formats.
Mohammad Abbas
Fast bowler Abbas will represent Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club this season. The 34-year-old previously played for Hampshire from 2021 to 2024, becoming a stalwart of the County Championship.
In 47 matches for Hampshire, he claimed 180 wickets at an impressive average of 19.26 and a strike rate of 48.13.
His consistent county form earned him a recall to Pakistan’s squad for the tour of South Africa last year. Abbas had also previously played for Leicestershire in 2018–19, where he took 79 wickets in two seasons.
Though he originally signed with Nottinghamshire for the 2020 season, the deal fell through due to Covid.
Now, he’s finally set to debut for Notts, having signed on to play six County Championship fixtures — three in May and three in September.
Kashif Ali
Rawalpindi-born pacer Kashif has been signed by Kent County Cricket Club for the 2024 season. Kashif, who made his Test debut earlier this year against the West Indies, will be available in April and May as cover for regular Australian pacer Wes Agar.
This marks Kashif’s first stint in county cricket. Since his first-class debut in 2021, he has taken 110 wickets in 35 matches. Although he has joined the Kent squad, he has not been included in the line-up for their opening game against Northamptonshire.
Zafar Gohar
Lahore-born left-arm spinner Gohar will play for Middlesex this season as a local player, having obtained British citizenship. Now 30, Gohar has represented Pakistan internationally, making his ODI debut in 2015 against England and his Test debut in 2021 against New Zealand.
He has also played for Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United in the PSL. Gohar joined Gloucestershire in August 2021 for the remainder of that season’s County Championship.
After impressing, he signed a full-season contract and went on to play 34 first-class matches, taking 118 wickets. In 2022, he was Gloucestershire’s leading wicket-taker with 47 scalps.
In 2024, he signed with Middlesex for the 2025 season as a local player. Zafar will be in action at Lord’s in Middlesex’s opening match against Lancashire.
