Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran hands maiden Test cap to uncle Noor Ali Zadran in rare moment in sport

In a moment as rare as it can get in sport, Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran handed his uncle Noor Ali Zadran his maiden Test cap during the one-off Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Born 13 years apart according to official records, Noor Ali had made his debut for the national team all the way back in 2009 when cricket in the war-torn nation was still in its infancy, and was part of the Emerging team recently while his nephew Ibrahim represented the senior side. On Friday, not only did Noor Ali finally make his debut in Test whites after representing Afghanistan in 51 ODIs and 23 T20Is, he ended up opening alongside Ibrahim — making for a rare uncle-nephew opening combination.

It’s not often in sport, let alone cricket, that two members of the same family from different generations end up playing in the same team. Ken Griffey Senior and Junior are among the handful of father-son duos to have represented a professional sports team simultaneously. The Griffeys were part of the Seattle Mariners lineup in the 1990 season of Major League Baseball (MLB). Ibrahim was dismissed for a two-ball duck by Asitha Fernando after Sri Lanka elected to field in the one-off Test at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club. Noor, however, brought Afghanistan back to its feet with a knock of 31 off 46 deliveries that contained five boundaries, stitching a 57-run second-wicket partnership with Rahmat Shah (91). Afghanistan, however, would soon collapse from 109/2 to 198 all out, with Rahmat not getting much support from the remaining Afghan batters. Openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka would then get the Lankans off to a confident start, steering the hosts to 80 for no loss at close of play. Veterans Angelo Mathews (141) and Dinesh Chandimal (107) would then slam tons the following day as Sri Lanka would end up scoring 410/6 after 101.2 overs at close of play on Day 2, stretching their lead to 212.