Shoaib Malik is a Pakistani cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team and currently plays for Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team from 2007 to 2009. He made his One-Day International debut in 1999 against the West Indies and his Test debut in 2001 against Bangladesh.

Malik was born into a middle-class Punjabi Rajput family in Sialkot. His father Malik Faqueer Hussain, a modest shopkeeper who sold local footwear and supported his son's passion for cricket, died of throat cancer in 2006.

Malik was married in 2002 to Ayesha Siddiqui which ended in divorce on 7 April 2010.

Malik reportedly dated Indian actress Sayali Bhagat, whom he met in 2008 when he was supposed to make his Bollywood debut, but they eventually separated when he announced his engagement to Indian tennis player Sania Mirza. Writing in 2008 for CricInfo, Andrew McGlashan called Bhagat his "real-life girlfriend." Both Malik and Bhagat, however, denied such reports, calling them publicity stunts to market their under-production film.