Saad Bin Zafar was born in Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab and dreamt of becoming the next Wasim Akram. He even modelled his action on the left-arm swing king, but cricket took a back seat once he emigrated to Canada along with his family for his studies. A back injury then ended his fast-bowling dream altogether.
Saad, though, refashioned himself into a left-arm spinner, and was good enough to be nicknamed “Vettori” in Canada’s club circuit. That’s when he realised that he was good enough to play professional cricket as a left-arm spinner.
He made his first-class debut for Canada back in 2008, and 18 years later, he’s just as passionate about representing his adopted country. In Canada’s first warm-up fixture of the 2026 T20 World Cup in Chennai, he crossed paths with his former team-mate John Davison, who is now Italy’s coach.
The evergreen Saad continues to play on and is the highest wicket-taker for Canada in T20Is, with 72 strikes in 63 innings. He also holds the world record of being the first player to bowl four maidens in a men’s T20I innings.
“It’s a blessing to play for Canada in a sport you’re so passionate about,” Saad, now 39, told ESPNcricinfo in Chennai before the start of the T20 World Cup. “My motivation is to make full use of the opportunity and give back to the sport and country that has given me everything. With time, I know everything will come to an end. I’m feeling physically and mentally fit. As long as I’m not a liability in the field and keep doing my role to the best of my abilities, I want to keep going. The end is near but I don’t know when. There’s no timeline as of now.”
This is Canada’s, and Saad’s, second T20 World Cup. In their T20 World Cup bow in 2024, he captained them to victory over Ireland in New York and counts that as a significant landmark in his career. His arm ball to Harry Tector hastened Ireland’s collapse and helped Canada defend 137 for their maiden T20 World Cup win.
“I’m very honoured and humbled that god provided me with that opportunity to captain Canada to our first [T20] World Cup win,” Saad, not the captain anymore, said. “The cherry on the top is beating a Test-playing nation. It was tough to pick ourselves up and forget about the USA game, which was close, and then focus on the Ireland game. But everybody came together and executed under pressure, which was commendable.”
In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Saad also came up against Pakistan, his country of birth, in New York. He bowled a typically tidy spell of 4-0-23-0. Did the contest against Pakistan divide the support among his family members at the time?
“I come from a Pakistani background, so all the people in my family, extended family and friends all support Pakistan and we have all grown up supporting Pakistan in the past,” he said. “So it was a new experience for them to choose between supporting Pakistan and Canada. But on that day, they were all supporting Canada and rooting for me.”
During the Global T20 Canada, Saad had the opportunity to play alongside Pakistan players, including Shahid Afridi. After Saad derailed Vancouver Knights’ chase of 152 in 15 overs with figures of 2-0-9-0 in a rain-hit game, Afridi was so impressed that he reached out to Saad’s mother at the venue and said, “your son is the one who made the difference today in the team and I never expected a local player to be this good.”
Saad was blown away by Afridi’s praise in 2023 and cherishes it to this day. “I have grown up looking up to Afridi, when he played for Pakistan and did those wonderful things,” Saad said. “He’s one of those guys I admire as a cricketer. And for him to speak about my bowling to my mom, it meant a lot to me.”
During that league, Saad’s accurate bowling also caught the attention of Chris Gayle, who recommended his name to St Kitts & Nevis Patriots for the CPL playoffs in 2018. Saad became the second North American player, after USA’s Ali Khan, to have his stocks rise through the Global T20 Canada.
“The exposure helped me massively,” Saad said. “As a cricketer, you sometimes have doubts if you can perform at this level. But when you get an opportunity to share a dressing room with guys of that calibre like Afridi and Gayle, it was a great confidence-booster for me. That played a massive role in my improvement as a player.”
Saad also credits Carl Crowe, the new spin consultant at Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who has also worked extensively with Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, for his development as a spinner.
“With Carl Crowe, we improved subtle things on my bowling – like my action, my finish and dip on the ball,” Saad said. “Along with that, I focussed on the mindset and worked on game plans against different batters and managing pressure. When I came under the wing of these mentors and when they told me that I have good skill-sets, I believed in myself more and felt I could achieve something in cricket.”
He went on to bowl four overs for no runs against Panama in 2021, a feat that has only been matched by Lockie Ferguson in men’s T20I history.
“I was taken by surprise by the record at the time,” Saad recalled. “It’s a record I made and I’m very proud of it. But it’s not something I go back to and watch. I’m not someone who lives in the past. I look forward to giving my best in the next opportunity for my country.”
Saad is eager to keep Canada’s flag flying on the big stage again and soak in the experience of playing in front of a mass audience in India.
“This World Cup is special because it’s in India, the Mecca of cricket, and it’s my first trip to India,” Saad said. “My journey has been an incredible journey – unplanned and unexpected, but excited to play in another World Cup.
“We want to win a few games and cause a few upsets. That’s the whole point for Canada to be competing in the World Cup. But at the end of the day, whether you win or you lose, you want to play competitive cricket and you want to show the world that you belong on this stage. You want to do one better than the last time. You want to make sure that you have fun and give your best out on the field.”
Saad and Canada didn’t start too well against South Africa, and they have never beaten UAE, who they play next on Friday, in six attempts in T20s, but they might spring a surprise or two. Who knows? Surprises have been a big part of Saad’s career, after all.
