Zeeshan Maqsood

National Team: Oman national cricket team ( ODI T20I )

Date of Birth: 24.10.1987

Batting Style: Left Hand

Role: All-rounder

Bowling Style: Left-arm Orthodox

Batting

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Bowling

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All-rounder

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Test Rankings

ODI Rankings

54 514

39 510

3 262

T20I Rankings

52 454

88 394

3 178

Zeeshan Maqsood — An Omani All-Rounder Of Pakistani Origin

Zeeshan Maqsood is a Pakistani-Omani international cricketer and all-rounder. A former player for the Oman national team and its ex-captain in both the T20I and ODI formats. He featured in two T20 World Cups (2016 and 2021). Maqsood played one of the key roles in the country’s historic achievement,  helping the Oman national team secure official ODI status. In this short piece, we invite you to take a closer look at the talented athlete and his accomplishments.

Zeeshan Maqsood: Biography and Sporting Career

Zeeshan Maqsood was born on October 24, 1987, in the small Pakistani town of Chichawatni, in Punjab province. For Zeeshan, a kid from a modest-income family, cricket was the most accessible sporting passion. From an early age, he spent all his free time on any cricket ground he could find and even skipped school to play. Old acquaintances of the player recall that Zeeshan was the kind of guy who “learned on the field, not at a desk”. Be that as it may, it paid off: Maqsood was already playing for the Sahiwal youth team by 2005 and a year later he represented Multan U-19 in regional tournaments.

Like many of his peers, Maqsood dreamed of breaking into Pakistan’s youth national setups, but he ran into fierce competition and did not make the cut. Even though coaches predicted a bright future for him in Pakistan, the lack of connections and his family’s financial situation pushed him toward the life of a labor migrant in Oman rather than chasing a slim chance in talent-packed Pakistan. The digital edition of Tribune India quotes the athlete as saying:

“Financially, we weren’t strong,” he says. “I couldn’t get the chances in cricket in Pakistan, and I had to support my family. I did well in Oman. Then, I realised that through cricket, I could do something for the country I was earning my livelihood in (Oman).”

Interestingly, Zeeshan did not go to Oman for cricket, he went there for work. During his first couple of years, he worked as a painter, loader, and general laborer, while cricket was limited to irregular training sessions on local grounds after exhausting workdays.

According to reports, thanks to the backing of fellow countrymen — brothers Manzoor and Saleem Elahi, well-known Pakistani cricketers — he was spotted by scouts from Khimji Ramdas, a team owned by the major Omani business group of the same name. After landing stable employment and gaining access to the company’s quality training facilities, Zeeshan Maqsood was able to ramp up his workload significantly. He quickly began to stand out in domestic cricket, delivering strong performances for teams associated with Khimji Ramdas and Assarain Club in local leagues.

The key breakthrough in his sporting career came in 2012, when Zeeshan Maqsood, playing for Oman, smashed 199 runs in his very first One Day match against Bhutan, falling just short of a double hundred. That knock instantly made him a notable figure in Omani cricket.

Let’s highlight the athlete’s main achievements so as not to overload the text with extra detail:

• 2016 — leading run-scorer of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five tournament (350 runs); appearance at the 2016 T20 World Cup;
• 2019 — appointed captain of the Oman national team; led the side to ODI level (Oman reached the final and finished as runners-up in the ICC WCL Division Two tournament);
• 2020 — scored his maiden ODI century (109) in a match against the USA during the World Cup qualification cycle;
• 2021 — won the ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year award and was named Man of the Match at the T20 World Cup (4/20 against Papua New Guinea);
• 2022 — reached No. 3 in the ICC ODI all-rounder rankings among associate nations;
• 2023-2024 — as captain, led Oman to the final stage of qualification and secured the team’s place at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

In October 2024, the athlete’s international career effectively came to an end. After a conflict with the Oman Cricket Board (OCB) over a prize-money dispute, Zeeshan Maqsood, together with a group of leading national-team players (including Aqib Ilyas, Ayaan Khan and others), refused to continue representing Oman. In response, the OCB terminated the players’ central contracts and barred them from taking part in all national and domestic competitions. So, it looks like no new international matches from Maqsood are on the horizon.

That said, the athlete continues to compete at the professional level. He currently plays for and captains the Michigan Cricket Stars in the American Minor League Cricket (MiLC).

Zeeshan Maqsood: Personal Life and Interesting Facts

Zeeshan Maqsood’s personal life remains one of the most tightly guarded subjects when it comes to the athlete. He rarely, almost never, shares any details, so the available information is very limited. Only a few things are known for sure: Zeeshan is married and has children. As a small trade-off for the lack of insight into his private life, here is a подборка of interesting facts about the player along with his playing statistics:

• Within the team and among fans, he is often called “Zee” or “Captain Zee,” and sometimes “Shaan” — a common shortened form of Zeeshan;
• Zeeshan has described the greatest pain in his life as the tragic loss of his 3.5-year-old son due to medical negligence;
• In the Persian-Arabic tradition, the name “Zeeshan” means “possessing magnificence” or “majestic”;
• Maqsood is a devout Muslim. He often thanks God for his success on social media and observes religious traditions even during a packed tournament schedule.

As for social media, Maqsood’s only verified page is @zeeshanmaqsoodofficial on Instagram, where he regularly posts cricket-related content and reels.