Karim Janat
Karim Janat - Afghan cricketer
Karim Janat is an Afghan professional cricket all-rounder and a member of the national team. He is the younger brother of Asghar Janat, a well-known cricketer and former captain of the Afghanistan national side.
Karim Janat: Biography and Sporting Career
Karim Janat was born on August 11, 1998, in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Janat’s childhood fell in the period after 2001, when cricket in Afghanistan started making a comeback after having been banned by the Taliban. The game’s popularity kept picking up thanks to repatriates returning from Pakistan. Even in Kabul, with its shattered infrastructure and political instability, cricket turned into a mass passion for Afghan youth.
Janat’s journey as a player began with backyard and street matches in Kabul when he was just over ten years old. In a family where cricket was a shared passion for seven out of nine brothers, Karim grew up under the strong influence of his older brother Asghar Afghan, the famous cricketer and former captain of the national team. Here is how the player himself described the roots of his love for the sport in an interview with Cricbuzz:
“We are nine brothers and Asghar went to cricket seeing his elder brother. I also liked to play tennis ball cricket but I used to study a lot. Later I went to Kabul Cricket Academy and the love for the game started from there. Seven of my nine brothers played cricket while me and Asghar represented the national team.”
In the mid-2010s, Karim Janat moved on from street cricket (tape-ball cricket) to structured training after joining the Kabul Cricket Academy. In 2015-2016, his consistent performances in domestic youth tournaments caught the eye of national selectors, which earned him a place in Afghanistan’s Under-19 squad.
Karim Janat’s international career developed step by step and eventually covered all three main formats of cricket: T20I – December 14, 2016; ODI – February 24, 2017; Test – June 14, 2023. Interestingly, Karim made his T20I debut without having any experience in official domestic T20 tournaments. Even so, it turned out to be one of the brightest debuts in Afghan cricket history: in a match against the UAE, Karim scored 25 runs with the bat and picked up 3 wickets, which earned him the Man of the Match award.
Instead of breaking down every detail of this young player’s biography, let us focus strictly on his key sporting achievements:
- 2017 – victory in the Desert T20 Challenge: Janat became an important part of the team that lifted the title in the tournament.
- 2019 – historic record against the West Indies: Karim delivered an incredible bowling spell, taking 5 wickets for just 11 runs.
- 2020 – Karim Janat received the “Player of the Tournament” award in the Shpageeza Cricket League (alongside Azmatullah Omarzai).
- 2022 – as part of Comilla Victorians, Karim became a champion of the Bangladesh Premier League.
- 2023 – in a tense T20I match against Bangladesh, Janat bagged a hat-trick in the final over.
- 2024 – represented Afghanistan at the T20 World Cup: the team reached the semi-finals, a historic achievement for the national side.
- 2025 – breakthrough in the IPL: signing a contract and making a successful debut for Gujarat Titans. By becoming the 10th Afghan player in the history of the Indian league, Karim underlined his status as a cricketer of global caliber.
At the moment, the player remains part of the extended pool of Afghanistan national team players in the T20I and ODI formats, but he was left out of the squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup – a highly controversial call that came as a shock to many of his fans. At the domestic level, he traditionally represents the Band-e-Amir region (Band-e-Amir Dragons in the Shpageeza Cricket League).
Karim Janat: Personal Life and Interesting Facts
Karim Janat leads a modest lifestyle, stays away from scandals, and rarely talks about his private life. In interviews, he more often mentions his brother as his main mentor and his family as his source of motivation, but he does not open up about the details of his personal life, including romantic relationships or marriage plans. Some reliable sources confirm about the athlete: marital status – unmarried, no children.
To round off the article, here are a few interesting facts about Karim along with his playing statistics:
- Karim’s older brother, Asghar Afghan, officially changed his family surname from Stanikzai to Afghan in 2018 in order to emphasize his national identity and loyalty to his country.
- In November 2021, the player became one of the first Afghan cricketers to sign a personal sponsorship deal with the sportswear brand Sporoot Sports.
- Karim and his large family went through a tragedy in 2025 – the death of his sister.
Karim is a fairly humble and religious athlete. You will not find any flashy lifestyle posts or scandalous statements on his social media pages. His social media accounts (Instagram @karimjanat_11, X Karimjanat_11) are more like a running diary of hard work and pride in the national flag.
| Format | Matches | Runs | Bat Avg | Top Score | Balls bowled | Wickets | Bowl Avg | Best Bowl | Catches |
| Test | 2 | 95 | 31.66 | 41 | 150 | – | – | – | – |
| ODI | 3 | 32 | 10.66 | 22 | 78 | – | – | – | – |
| T20I | 75 | 759 | 16.86 | 56 | 847 | 42 | 27.64 | 5/11 | 17 |
| T20s | 182 | 2 846 | 22.76 | 120 | 2 743 | 126 | 28.86 | 5/11 | 44 |
| List A | 52 | 1 041 | 26.69 | 91 | 2 238 | 73 | 27.08 | 5/42 | 9 |
| FC | 25 | 1 906 | 52.94 | 211 | 3 979 | 73 | 34.32 | 7/139 | 12 |
