Marufa Akter

Marufa Akter (born 1 January 2005) is a Bangladeshi cricketer who plays for the Bangladesh women's national cricket team as a right-arm medium fast bowler.

Early life
She born in Nilphamari District of Bangladesh and she lives in Saidpur, a small town in the Nilphamari district. Her father is a farmer. Her older brother encouraged her to play cricket. Her favorite player is Hardik Pandya. In the perior of lock down she handed over her first earnings from cricket in Cox's Bazaar training camp of US$ 412. Marufa went on to attend the country's biggest sports institution: Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) where she learnt some of the skills she showed off on the world's biggest stage.

International career
In November 2022, Marufa was earned maiden call-up for national team of Bangladesh to ODI and T20I squad for the series against New Zealand. She made her Twenty20 International (T20I) debut against New Zealand in the same series on 4 December 2022. She made her One Day International (ODI) debut against New Zealand on 11 December 2024.

In December 2022, she was selected to Bangladesh women's under-19 cricket team for the 2023 Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup. She took 8 wickets from that tournament with best bowling figure 2/16 in 4 overs against United Arab Emirates women's under-19 cricket team.

In January 2023 she was named in Bangladesh's T20I squad for the 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup. She took 4 wickets in that tournament with best bowling figure 3/23 in 4 overs against Sri Lanka.

On 16 July 2023, she took 4 wickets of 29 runs in her 7 overs in the first ODI again India, helping Bangladesh to first win against India in ODIs by 40 runs, and she got Player of the Match award.

In August 2023, she was selected to the national team for the 2022 Asian Games. She was the part of Bronze medal winning team of Bangladesh in that tournament.

In January 2024, Marufa was nominated for ESPNcricinfo Awards 2023 Women's ODI bowling for her maiden four-wicket haul against India, and won that award in the following month.