Asad Shafiq (; born 28 January 1986) is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2010 and 2020. As of the 2021/22 season, he plays for Sindh in domestic cricket.
In August 2018, he was one of thirty-three players to be awarded a central contract for the 2018–19 season by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
In September 2019, he was named in Sindh's squad for the 2019–20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy tournament.
Personal life
Shafiq hails from a Gujarati family. He is fluent in Urdu and English, while he can speak Gujarati partly and understands it.
In 2023, he resumed his studies, after having to interrupt them due to his professional cricket career, by joining University of Karachi's BS Health Physical Education and Sports Sciences (HPESS) program.
Career
Early career (2007–2010) Asad Shafiq made his first-class debut at 21 years old for Karachi Whites against Hyderabad at Niaz Stadium on 21 October 2007. Although he was only playing because Karachi's Khalid Latif had been called up to play for Pakistan, he managed to score a century in his debut innings, finishing with 113 runs from 183 deliveries. He scored his second century of the season against Faisalabad, batting for more than eight and a half hours to finish with 223 runs from 350 balls, still his highest score in a first-class match. He played all ten matches of the 2007–08 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for Karachi Whites, and finished as their leading run-scorer with 745 runs at an average of 49.66.
Shafiq was less successful in his second season of first-class cricket. He did score a century against Khan Research Laboratories, but it was his only of the season and he only averaged 23.46 in the 2008–09 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. His major successes of the season came in one-day cricket. He scored 360 runs at an average of 72.00 in the 2008–09 Royal Bank of Scotland Cup, including two centuries, and finished with an average of 54.14 in all one-day matches for the season.
Shafiq switched teams to the Karachi Blues for the 2009–10 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and scored 1,000 runs in a season for the first time. In eleven Quaid-e-Azam Trophy matches he scored 1,104 runs at an average of 64.94, including four centuries and four half-centuries. As a reward for his stellar form, he was selected to play for Pakistan A in a series of one-day matches against England Lions.
First international appearances (2010)
Shafiq made it into the national team for the first time in the 2010 Asia Cup when he was selected as part of Pakistan's 15-man squad for the tournament. He joined the team at a turbulent stage for the side, as several players had recently been given bans by the Pakistan Cricket Board for behavioural issues. Shafiq made his ODI debut in a dead rubber match against Bangladesh at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. He scored 17 runs from 19 balls before being stumped by Mushfiqur Rahim off the bowling of Shakib Al Hasan.
Despite having been the top run-scorer in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and one of only two players to score more than 1,000 runs in the 2009–10 season, Shafiq was overlooked by national selectors for Pakistan's Test squad to face England. Shafiq's lack of selection, as well as a number of other Karachi players being overlooked, caused the Karachi City Cricket Association to condemn the national selectors for allegedly deliberately ignoring Karachi-based players. Instead, Shafiq was selected to play for Pakistan A on a tour of Sri Lanka. Shafiq was named as a reserve player for Pakistan's later ODI series against England, but he stayed in Sri Lanka with the A team, where he scored a run-a-ball century in a one-day match against Sri Lanka A.
Due to a spot-fixing scandal involving several Pakistani players, Shafiq was flown to England as a replacement player 48 hours before the first ODI, In the first ODI he scored a quickfire 19 runs from 10 deliveries, including 4 boundaries against English bowler Tim Bresnan, and he followed it up in the 2nd ODI with his maiden ODI half-century, 50 runs off of 58 deliveries. He played out the rest of the 5-match series to finish with 120 runs at an average of 24.
Ahead of a series of matches against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates, Shafiq both kept his place in Pakistan's ODI squad and earned his first selection in their Test squad. Shafiq opened the batting in the first two matches, but after only scoring 19 and 1 he was moved back down the order to bat at number 4, where he scored 43 and 36. For the final match of the ODI series he was replaced by Mohammad Yousuf, who had only arrived in the UAE the day before the match.