Like many of his teammates, he discovered cricket in a refugee camp in Peshawar and was playing in Pakistan when he was spotted by an Afghanistan coach. He is now a senior member of the team after 37 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty20s.

Shinwari, 26, said his native country still had problems, but there were plenty of safe areas and he was looking forward to the day it would become trouble-free.

His early years were especially tough for his parents, trying to keep a young family safe.

"We grew up in the refugee camps in Pakistan," Shinwari said. "When I was a child we moved to Pakistan [via the] mountains, I don't think there would be cars or something else, so we moved by walking across the border.

"In Peshawar, I studied there, I played cricket there, I learnt everything there. There was no choice to go back to Afghanistan because of war. [It was] too tough because my mum said there was nothing. We walked by the mountains, there was fighting,  so we were lucky we moved to Peshawar."

His family did not return to its native country until 2004.

Now Shinwari is a senior member of the Afghanistan team, which has qualified for the Cricket World Cup for the first time. They are on tour in Australasia to get used to the conditions and will play the second of two practice games against the ACT Comets at Manuka Oval on Sunday, after winning the first in a thriller on Friday.

Shinwari played a crucial role in the win and Afghanistan coach Andy Moles said he would be a similarly important cog at the World Cup – as a middle-order batsman and with his leg-spin. He helped guide the visitors to victory with an unbeaten 31 runs off 28 balls as they chased down the Comets' 266 with four balls to spare.

Afghanistan play the first of their six World Cup games against Bangladesh at Manuka on February 18.

The team met with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Thursday and saw native animals at the zoo on Saturday. Shinwari's eyes lit up at the prospect of meeting a kangaroo and he was also excited about his country returning to peace.

"We have some issues, hopefully one day it will be free [of problems] and people come for holidays and come to visit Afghanistan and hopefully people like it and enjoy it," he said. "But it will take some more time because we've had like 30 years of war, so it's hard to quickly be fine, so it will take time."

AT A GLANCE

Sunday: ACT Comets v Afghanistan at Manuka Oval, from 9.30am