pakistani cricket player: November 2011

Saqlain Mushtaq

Saqlain Mushtaq Biography

Full name: Saqlain Mushtaq
Born: December 29, 1976, Lahore, Punjab
County: Surrey
Other teams: Ireland, Pakistan, Islamabad Cricket Association, Pakistan International Airlines, Sussex
Test Debut: Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Peshawar, September 8-11, 1995
ODI Debut: Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Gujranwala, September 29, 1995
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Off-spin

Sussex showed faith in the former Pakistan off-spinner when they signed him on a two-year contract for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

He has taken 208 Test and 288 one-day international wickets for Pakistan and will be qualified to play for England next year, having married his British wife nine years ago.

Saqlain was one of the first to develop the doosra delivery and was the fastest bowler to 100 one-day wickets.

During a Test match, at Chennai in 1998-99 he claimed ten wickets in the match that allowed Pakistan to claim a 12-run win against India.

He was not eligible to play county matches until May 2007 when he received his British passport and became EU qualified, playing in four championship matches and taking 18 wickets.

However, he left Sussex at the end of the 2007 season, citing personal reasons, and returned to his old stomping ground of the Brit Oval where he spent several successful seasons forming a spin partnership with Ian Salisbury.

The 2008 season saw him claim 38 championship victims and he ended as the county's leading wicket-taker. He also claimed six wickets in two Twenty20 matches.

He was released ahead of 2009, his links with a rebel league part of the rationale.

Saqlain Mushtaq

Saqlain Mushtaq Doosra against Australia...Amazing bowling

Saqlain Mushtaq Wonder Over www.pakistancricketzone.com

Shoaib Akhter

Shoaib Akhter Biography

Controversial speedster Shoaib Akhtar has provided an insight into infighting that has always dogged Pakistan cricket team, recalling how greats like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were at loggerheads.

In his tell-all autobiography, 'Controversially Yours', Shoaib described in detail the tension in the dressing room caused at one stage by a feud between Wasim and Waqar. The pacer also claimed that senior players ganged up against him in his debut Test leaving him demoralised.

The feud between Wasim and Waqar took place prior to the Asian Test Championship match in Kolkata (1999) that led to his selection for the Eden Test.

"...Meanwhile, we lost the Delhi Test and Wasim got into an argument with Waqar. It got so bad that rumour started doing rounds that Waqar was to be sent back home," the bowler writes.

"But the entire squad left for Kolkata for the first Test of the Championship. Inside the dressing room, things got uglier. I do not remember it but ever being as tense as it was then," he revealed.

"The two seniors were at war and we were a young and fresh team. Everyone was stressed out and amidst all this, it was decided that I would play."

He alleged that some Pakistan players "ganged up" against him during his debut Test match against the West Indies in Rawalpindi back in 1997.

"What can I tell you about my first Test match! The one I had prepared for all my life. Wasim Akram was the captain and he told the board he wouldn't play Shoaib come what may," he claimed.

"Perhaps he wished to continue with the previous team because he was satisfied with its performance or perhaps he didn't want to encourage the emergence of new fast bowler."

Shoaib recollected his first day in international cricket when his own teammates weren't exactly cordial with him.

"We were to field first and I nervously got ready to go out on to the ground. The atmosphere in the dressing room was horrible; the rest of the team ganged up against me and made things as uncomfortable as they possibly could, peppering every phrase aimed at me with abuses," he alleged.

"The result was that I felt messed up and terribly unsure of myself. This feeling heightened as the day wore on and I wasn't asked to bowl even once. I did get my first chance after lunch and got two wickets, but I knew that I had under-performed.

"I just couldn't shake off the tension that had built up in me, and as a result I bowled far below my own standards.I remember feeling that perhaps I wasn't good enough to play at this level. I was completely demoralized and my dreams seemed to lie shattered around me," he recalled.

The controversial pacer then spoke about his spat with the then captain Waqar during the 2003 World Cup where Pakistan couldn't even make it to the last four stage.

Even though I have taken a fiver against Kenya and wickets in almost all the matches, that we played, it was not enough for us to win the Cup. The dressing room reflected what was happening to us on the field. Tempers were short and fights and squabbles kept breaking out. (PTI)

Shoaib Akhter

Shoaib Akhter

Shoaib Akhter

Shoaib Akhter at its Best

Best Over in Test Cricket History by Shoaib Akhter

Inzamam ul Haq

Inzamam ul Haq Biography
Full name: Inzamam-ul-Haq
Born: March 3, 1970, Multan, Punjab
Current age: 41 years 269 days
Major teams: Pakistan, Asia XI, Faisalabad,ICC World XI,ICL Pakistan XI,Lahore Badshahs,Multan,National Bank of Pakistan, Rawalpindi,United Bank Limited,Yorkshire
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Slow left-arm orthodox

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	120	200	22	8830	329	49.60	16345	54.02	25	46	1105	48	81	0
ODIs	378	350	53	11739	137*	39.52	15812	74.24	10	83	971	144	113	0
T20Is	1	1	1	11	11*	-	15	73.33	0	0	0	1	0	0
First-class	245	393	58	16785	329	50.10			45	87			172	0
List A	458	430	69	13746	157*	38.07			12	97			128	0
Twenty20	2	2	1	32	21	32.00	37	86.48	0	0	2	1	0	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	120	1	9	8	0	-	-	-	5.33	-	0	0	0
ODIs	378	6	58	64	3	1/0	1/0	21.33	6.62	19.3	0	0	0
T20Is	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	245		2704	1295	38	5/80		34.07	2.87	71.1		2	0
List A	458		896	740	30	3/18	3/18	24.66	4.95	29.8	0	0	0
Twenty20	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Career statistics

Test debut	England v Pakistan at Birmingham, Jun 4-8, 1992 scorecard
Last Test	Pakistan v South Africa at Lahore, Oct 8-12, 2007 scorecard
ODI debut	Pakistan v West Indies at Lahore, Nov 22, 1991 scorecard
Last ODI	Pakistan v Zimbabwe at Kingston, Mar 21, 2007 scorecard
Only T20I	England v Pakistan at Bristol, Aug 28, 2006 scorecard
First-class debut	1985/86
Last First-class	Pakistan v South Africa at Lahore, Oct 8-12, 2007 scorecard
List A debut	1988/89
Last List A	Kent v Yorkshire at Canterbury, Sep 9, 2007 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Australia A v Pakistanis at Adelaide, Jan 13, 2005 scorecard
Last Twenty20	England v Pakistan at Bristol, Aug 28, 2006 scorecard

Recent matches

Bat & Bowl	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	Scorecard
-	ICL Pak XI	v ICL World XI	Ahmedabad	26 Nov 2008	Other T20
24	ICL Pak XI	v ICL India XI	Ahmedabad	24 Nov 2008	Other T20
-	Lahore	v ICL Hyd	Ahmedabad	16 Nov 2008	Other T20
10	Lahore	v ICL Hyd	Ahmedabad	15 Nov 2008	Other T20
5	Lahore	v ICL Hyd	Ahmedabad	13 Nov 2008	Other T20
62	Lahore	v Chennai	Ahmedabad	10 Nov 2008	Other T20
31	Lahore	v Chennai	Ahmedabad	9 Nov 2008	Other T20
27*	Lahore	v Dhaka	Ahmedabad	7 Nov 2008	Other T20
-	Lahore	v Chandigarh	Panchkula	2 Nov 2008	Other T20
12, 1/22	Lahore	v Delhi Giants	Gurgaon	26 Oct 2008	Other T20

Profile
Inzamam-ul-Haq is a symbiosis of strength and subtlety. Power is no surprise, but sublime touch is remarkable for a man of his bulk. He loathes exercise and often looks a passenger in the field, but with a willow between his palms he is suddenly galvanised. He plays shots all round the wicket, is especially strong off his legs, and unleashes ferocious pulls and lofted drives. Imran Khan rates him the best batsman in the world against pace. Early on he is vulnerable playing across his front pad or groping outside off stump. He uses his feet well to the spinners, although this aggression can be his undoing. Inzi keeps a cool head in a crisis and has succeeded Javed Miandad as Pakistan's premier batsman, but his hapless running between wickets is legendary and most dangerous for his partners. There were no such problems against New Zealand at a boiling Lahore in 2001-02, when Inzamam belted 329, the second-highest Test score by a Pakistani and the tenth-highest by anyone. However, he was then dogged by poor form, scoring just 16 runs in Pakistan's ill-fated World Cup campaign in 2003. He was dropped from the team briefly, but then roared back to form, scoring a magnificent unbeaten 138 and guiding Pakistan to a thrilling one-wicket win against Bangladesh at Multan. He was rewarded with the captaincy of the team, and despite leading them to victory in the Test series in New Zealand, question-marks about his leadership qualities surfaced when Pakistan were beaten in both the Test series and the one-dayers against India. But the selectors persevered with him and this bore results when he took a team thin on bowling resources to India and drew the Test series with a rousing performance in the final Test, Inzamam's 100th. After scoring a magnificent 184, Inzamam led the team astutely on a tense final day and took Pakistan to victory. Since that day, Inzamam has gone from strength to strength as captain and premier batsman. By scoring a hundred against West Indies in June 2005, he kept up a remarkable record of matchwinning centuries, amongt the best of modern-day batsmen. A magnificent year ended with Inzamam leading his team to triumph over Ashes-winning England; personally the series was arguably his best ever. He never failed to make a fifty, scored twin centuries at Faisalabad for the first time, going past Miandad as Pakistan's leading century-maker and joining him as only the second Pakistani with 8000 Test runs. As captain, he never looked more a leader, uniting a young, inexperienced team and turning them, once again, into a force to matter globally. The turn of the year brought contemplation; he missed the Test victory over India at Karachi with a persistent back injury. The subsequent ODI thrashing also raised concerns about Inzamam as ODI captain, none of which were entirely wiped away during ODI and Test wins in Sri Lanka. Pakistan were then beaten comprehensively in the Test series in England though all was forgotten - including Inzamam's own poor form - by events at The Oval. There, Inzamam, astonishingly for a man perceived as so insouciant, became the most controversial figure in cricket for a week, leading his side off the field in protest at charges of ball tampering made by umpires Billy Doctrove and Darrell Hair. They refused to come out at first, then delayed the start before eventually forfeiting the Test, the first time in the history of the game. In Pakistan, he became a national hero, saviour of a country's pride and honour. He was banned for four ODIs and returned to lead the side to a series-win over West Indies followed by a disappointing Test series in South Africa, and then quit the one-day game after Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup at the first hurdle, an event overshadowed by the death of Bob Woolmer. Even though he expressed his desire to be part of the Test team, Inzamam was not offered a central contract in July and, according to a few, might signal the end of his illustrious international career.

Inzamam ul Haq