Presenting Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the allrounder in the making

An Afghanistan batter demanded the attention of reporters and photographers at Chepauk's outdoor nets on Tuesday, when he dashed out of the crease and flat-batted a local net bowler - a left-arm fingerspinner - with ferocious power.

No, we're not talking about Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

Let's talk about Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the batter.

For about half an hour on Tuesday evening, Mujeeb lined up almost every bowler at Afghanistan's training session. Even Hamid Hasan, the former Afghanistan quick and current bowling coach of the side, wasn't spared.

Mujeeb has now added so much power to his batting that he can muscle the likes of Mark Wood and Sam Curran. On Sunday, Mujeeb hit 28 off 16 balls - his strike rate of 175 was the highest among Afghanistan's batters in their memorable triumph in Delhi. Earlier in August against a Pakistan attack comprising Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan in Colombo, he had shellacked a 26-ball half-century, the second fastest by an Afghanistan batter in ODI cricket. It was the fastest for Afghanistan before Mohammad Nabi broke that record in the recent Asia Cup.

Mujeeb had started his ODI career as a No. 11 and his T20 career as a No.10. He has since levelled up so much as a batter that his captain Hashmatullah Shahidi believes that he can become an allrounder in the future.

Mujeeb doesn't blindly swing for the hills. For instance, during that blistering fifty against Pakistan at the Premadasa, he picked wrong'uns from Shadab and put them away. And more recently, when Curran dug back-of-the-hand slowies into the Delhi pitch, Mujeeb held his shape for long enough and dispatched them to the boundary.

"It gives us a lot of advantage: Mujeeb he worked very hard [on his batting] and whenever he goes to his homeland, he is only doing batting you know in the nets," Shahidi said on the eve of Afghanistan's World Cup game against New Zealand. "Here, in the team environment also, he is keen to bat in the net sessions and he [has] improved on his power-hitting. And I can say he will be nearly an allrounder to us, but he has to be careful not to [get out] hit-wicket again because he did it twice in last couple of games (laughs)."

Afghanistan's batting is their weaker suit, but Mujeeb's improved power has helped mask some of that weakness. Afghanistan will need every bit of that batting depth against a New Zealand side that has Mitchell Santner slotted in at No. 8.

Featuring in T20 leagues around the world has also helped Mujeeb tap into his batting potential. Jamaica Tallawahs were the first team to see some spark in his batting. In the CPL 2020 semi-final against serial champions Trinbago Knight Riders, Tallawahs had used him has a pinch-hitting No. 3, but the move backfired at the time, with Mujeeb falling for a duck and Tallawahs managing just 107 for 7 in 20 overs.

"See the league cricket - it benefits our cricket," Shahidi said. "Like the players who played leagues, you know, that international pressure become a little bit less with that because they [are] used to [being] with the players, big players. And also, in here, like from the first game I was talking and everyone was talking, we are here to compete, and to fight with every team.

"So that's our mindset and the last game that we won gave us more confidence with that. So, we will try to take that same confidence as a team with us and move on and we will try our best to play positive cricket here and win games."

In that CPL knockout game three years ago, Glenn Phillips was Mujeeb's team-mate at Tallawahs. Phillips had opened the batting and kept wicket in that match. Their paths have diverged since, and white-ball cricket has changed since, but they have found ways to stay relevant by adding new strings to their bows. Phillips is now a middle-order power-hitter who can also pitch in with some quickish offspin. Mujeeb is now an all-sorts spinner who can also give it a good whack with the bat in the lower order.