Hailing from a small town in Punjab (Pakistan), Sadia Iqbal is a crafty left-arm orthodox bowler who plays professional cricket for Pakistan. Inspired by the veteran Pakistani spinner Sadia Yousuf, she joined cricket seeing her fellow countrymate picking up more than 130 international wickets. Sadia’s T20 career started with the PCB National Under-19 Women’s Championship 2013/14 representing Faisalabad U-19s Women. In the first game against Quetta, she bowled 4 overs and conceded just 11 runs but couldn’t manage to scalp any wicket. The Muhamadabad-born's List A career started a year later after debuting in the shortest format. The Punjab-born spinner played her debut List A match against Quetta in Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah Women Cricket Championship Seniors 2014. In her first match, she wreaked havoc by pairing up with her idol Sadia Yousuf. While Yousuf took 3 wickets by conceding just 8 runs, Iqbal took the same number of wickets by conceding 9 runs. The Punjab cricketer got her maiden callup in the Pakistan squad for their T20I match against Bangladesh. Surprisingly selected in the playing XI, she bowled brilliantly and conceded just 16 runs in 4 overs also picking one crucial wicket. Her ODI debut came a few days later against the same opposition. Conceding 38 runs in her 10 overs, she also picked up two massive wickets of the opener Sharmin Akhtar and the skipper Rumana Ahmed. A successful year passed by for the young left-arm spinner as she cemented her place in Pakistan’s squad and was a key member in the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. At just 25 years of age, she has contributed with both bat and bowl in the past two years and established herself as a leading spinner alongside Sadia Yousuf in the current Pakistan squad. (As of March 2021)
