Saturday, 19 November 2011

Younis Khan

Younis Khan Biography
Full name Mohammad Younis Khan

Born November 29, 1977, Mardan, North-West Frontier Province

Major teams Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited, Nottinghamshire, Peshawar Cricket Association, Rajasthan Royals, South Australia, Surrey, Warwickshire, Yorkshire

Also known as Younus Khan

Playing role Middle-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium, Legbreak

Younis Khan is fearless, as befits his Pathan ancestry and will forever be remembered as the second Khan to bring home a world title for Pakistan: Younis was Pakistan's captain in the 2009 World Twenty20, leading a successful campaign with stark similarities to the one Imran Khan had led 17 years earlier. Younis retired from the format straight after, a graceful and dignified gesture from a complex but honest man.

It is as a batsman, and a fearless one, that he made his name first, playing with a flourish. He is especially strong in the arc from backward point to extra cover. He is prone to getting down on one knee and driving extravagantly. But this flamboyance is coupled with grit.

Though Younis was one of the few batsmen who retained his place in the team after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup campaign in 2003, he lost it soon after due to a string of poor scores in the home series against Bangladesh and South Africa. He came back for the one-day series against India, but failed to cement a place in the Test side. He is among the better fielders in Pakistan and he took a world-record four catches in one innings as substitute during Pakistan's demolition of Bangladesh in the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship.

But until his return to the side in October 2004, he wasn't a fixture. At the pivotal one-down, against Sri Lanka in Karachi, a century laid the groundwork for his emergence as a force in Pakistan cricket. He was the top run-getter in the disastrous 3-0 whitewash in Australia immediately after and on the tour of India, for which Younis was elevated to vice-captain, he blossomed. After a horror start to the series he came back strongly, capping things off with a match-winning 267 in the final Test. He credits the late Bob Woolmer, to whom he was close, for the turnaround in his career.

Since then, barring minor troughs such as the 2005-06 series against England at home, his career has been one elongated peak, scoring hundreds against India and England for fun and becoming Pakistan's most successful one-down in recent memory. More importantly, the tour to India also showcased his potential as a future captain of Pakistan and his energetic and astute leadership has impressed many people. As captain in Inzamam's absence he led the side to a disastrous loss against the West Indies in 2005 but also to a memorable win against India in Karachi in January 2006.

He blotted his book by suddenly resigning from the captaincy in Inzamam's absence for the Champions Trophy 2006, only to return a day later and lead a scandal-afflicted side to a disappointing first round exit. He was the favourite to take over the captaincy after Pakistan's ignominous World Cup ouster in 2007 but he turned it down, citing mental strain and decided to honour his commitment with Yorkshire by making himself unavailable for Pakistan. In January 2009, however, the PCB came calling a third time, after Pakistan's disastrous home ODI series against Sri Lanka, and appointed him captain in place of Shoaib Malik. Within a few months, with the Twenty20 win, Younis was looking a natural leader.

But the peace, once again, did not last long and several senior players in the team expressed misgivings over Younis' leadership. Things came to a head against New Zealand in Sharjah, after which he announced his resignation from the top-job and sought a break from the team for the tour down under. He was included in the ODI team, midway through a disastrous tour, but struggled for form and runs. His career hit its biggest controversy in March 2010 when, along with Mohammad Yousuf, he was banned by the PCB from all Pakistan teams, for causing infighting within the team, in effect ending his career.

Younis Khan

Younis Khan 101(109)-England vs Pakistan 3rd ODI 2006 at Southampton

Younis Khan 117 v India - 2nd ODI - 2007

Imran Farhat

Imran Farhat Biography
Full name Imran Farhat

Current age 29 years 14 days

Major teams Pakistan, Biman Bangladesh, Habib Bank Limited, ICL Pakistan XI, Lahore, Lahore Badshahs, Lahore Eagles, Lahore Lions, Pakistan Reserves

Also known as Romi

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak

Relation Father-in-law - Mohammad Ilyas, Brother - Humayun Farhat

A gifted young left-handed opener who threatened at one stage to solve Pakistan's perennial opening conundrum, Imran Farhat had a brief spell in the Pakistan side after success with the national under-19 and A sides. Farhat also evokes Saeed Anwar but only fleetingly; he bludgeons rather than times his runs. He was rather too cavalier in his early appearances in the Test arena, and was promptly discarded after the tour to New Zealand in 2000-01. However, he tightened his game and achieved much more success in the 2003-04 season. Tempering his impressive array of shots with better defensive technique, Farhat scored a deluge of runs in the home series against South Africa and New Zealand, being involved in a record four successive hundred partnerships with Yasir Hameed in the one-day internationals against New Zealand. He also notched up his first century in both Tests and ODIs during this season, and then went on to score a vital 101 in Pakistan's victory against India in the Lahore Test. But since the India series, he has fallen away. A mediocre series at home to Sri Lanka and away to Australia saw him falter, especially with the emergence of the other left-handed opener, Salman Butt. When Pakistan included only one specialist opener in the squad for the series against England in 2005 - Butt - seemingly it confirmed that Farhat, temporarily, was out of national reckoning. But as an opener in Pakistan, you are never out of national reckoning and sure enough Farhat was back for the final Test against India, where he scored a fifty. That performance saw him on the plane to Sri Lanka and an average series. But with openers becoming as rare as dinosuars in Pakistan, he was retained for the summer tour to England, where he again produced some mixed results. Despite failures in the first two Tests, a broken finger and a spate of dropped catches, he came back to score a cavalier 91 in the final, fateful Oval Test. Runs against West Indies at home were followed by a barren patch in South Africa. A first away hundred followed by a patient half-century in the Napier Test of 2009 has set him up for a long sojourn in the Test side. His ODI career has however hit roadblocks since he was dropped after an indifferent run of scores in 2006.

Imran Farhat

Imran Farhat 94 in 54 balls

Faisal Bank T20 Cup 2011 7th Match Imran Farhat 50 Runs

Misbah-ul-Haq

Misbah-ul-Haq Biography
Full name Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Niazi

Born May 28, 1974, Mianwali, Punjab

Major teams Pakistan, Khan Research Labs, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sargodha

Playing role Middle-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak

An orthodox batsman with reasonable technique, Misbah-ul-Haq caught the eye with his unflappable temperament in the tri-nation one-day tournament in Nairobi in 2002, scoring two fifties in three innings, including one in the final against Australia. But before Pakistan could hail him as a possible middle-order mainstay, Misbah's form slumped - he didn't manage a single 20-plus score in three Tests against Australia and was duly dumped. Pakistan's abysmal World Cup campaign - and the wholesale changes to the team in its aftermath - gave Misbah another chance to redeem himself, but he did little of note in the limited opportunities he got.

Even though Misbah had not represented Pakistan for about three years, a run-filled domestic season, followed by club cricket in England, and Inzamam's retirement from ODIs prompted the board to award Misbah a central contract in July 2007. A month later, he was surprisingly picked, ahead of Mohammad Yousuf, for the 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. He repaid the selectors' faith by finishing the tournament as Pakistan's best player and nearly taking them to victory in the final. He was duly named in the team for the Test and ODI series that followed against South Africa.

After an unremarkable series against South Africa, Misbah was by far Pakistan's best batsman through the Tests against India, amassing 464 runs in three matches, including two centuries. He was ice-cool in crisis, rescuing Pakistan on several occasions with spirited rearguard efforts. His remarkable rise continued as a mere six months after being picked for the ICC World Twenty20, he was made vice-captain and handed a top-category contract in January 2008. His form deserted him again in 2009, and he dropped from all three squads for the series against New Zealand - but made yet another return to the side in October 2010, this time as captain for the Tests against South Africa .

Misbah-ul-Haq

Misbah-ul-Haq 70* v India - Asia Cup 2008

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, Misbah ul Haq Highlights, World Cup 2011

Umar Gul

Umar Gul Biography
Full name Umar Gul

Born April 14, 1984, Peshawar, North-Western Frontier Province

Major teams Pakistan, Gloucestershire, Habib Bank Limited, Kolkata Knight Riders, North West Frontier Province, North West Frontier Province Panthers, Pakistan A, Pakistan International Airlines, Peshawar, Peshawar Panthers, Western Australia

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

The least-hyped but most successful and assured Pakistan pace product of the last few years, Umar Gul is the latest in Pakistan's assembly-line of pace-bowling talent. He had played just nine first-class matches when called up for national duty in the wake of Pakistan's poor 2003 World Cup. On the flat tracks of Sharjah, Gul performed admirably, maintaining excellent discipline and getting appreciable outswing with the new ball.

He isn't express but bowls a very quick heavy ball and his exceptional control and ability to extract seam movement marks him out. Further, his height enables him to extract bounce on most surfaces and from his natural back of a length, it is a useful trait. His first big moment in his career came in the Lahore Test against India in 2003-04. Unfazed by a daunting batting line-up, Gul tore through the Indian top order, moving the ball both ways off the seam at a sharp pace. His 5 for 31 in the first innings gave Pakistan the early initiative which they drove home to win the Test.

Unfortunately, that was his last cricket of any kind for over a year as he discovered three stress fractures in his back immediately after the Test. The injury would have ended many an international career, but Gul returned, fitter and sharper than before in late 2005. He returned in a Pakistan shirt against India in the ODI series at home in February 2006 and in Sri Lanka showed further signs of rehabilitation by lasting both Tests but it was really the second half of 2006, where he fully came of age. Leading the attack against England and then the West Indies as Pakistan's main bowlers suffered injuries, Gul stood tall, finishing Pakistan's best bowler.

Since then, as Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar have floundered, Gul has become Pakistan's spearhead and one of the best fast bowlers in the world. He is smart enough and good enough to succeed in all three formats and 2009 proved it: he put together a patch of wicket-taking in ODIs, on dead pitches in Tests (including a career-best six-wicket haul against Sri Lanka) and established himself as the world's best Twenty20 bowler, coming on after the initial overs and firing in yorkers on demand.

He had hinted at that by being leading wicket-taker in the 2007 World Twenty20; over the next two years he impressed wherever he went, in the IPL for the Kolkatta Knight Riders and in Australia's domestic Twenty20 tournament. Confirmation came on the grandest stage: having poleaxed Australia in a T20I in Dubai with 4-8, he was the best bowler and leading wicket-taker as Pakistan won the second World Twenty20 in England. The highlight was 5-6 against New Zealand, the highest quality exhibition of yorker bowling. He is not a one-format pony, however, and will remain a crucial cog in Pakistan's attack across all formats.

Umar Gul

Umar Gul's best ODI figures - 6/42 - vs England - 2010

Best of Umar Gul World Cup 2011

Abdul Razzaq

Abdul Razzaq Biography
Abdul Razzaq (born December 2, 1979, Lahore, Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer and member of the national team since 1996. Razzaq is an all-rounder, a talented right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler.

He burst onto the world cricket scene in November 1996 when he made his one-day international debut against the touring Zimbabweans at his home ground in Lahore a month short of his seventeenth birthday.

He had to wait just over three years to make his Test debut for Pakistan, eventually doing so against Australia in Brisbane in November 1999.

Early in his career Razzaq was compared to former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan – arguably one of the greatest cricketers of all time – although his performances at international level have seen him fail to live up to this billing.

Razzaq was involved in the ACC Asian XI that took on the ICC World XI in the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal charity match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January 2005. As of May 2005 Razzaq remains an integral part of Pakistan’s Test and one-day squads and is considered especially vital in the ODI team, where his all-round skills make him an important asset to the squad.

He has played at English county level for Middlesex and has the rare distinction of being one of very few cricketers to have batted in all eleven batting positions in one-day international cricket.

Abdul Razzaq

Abdul Razzaq vs New Zealand 34 off 11 balls - Last 3 Overs

Abdul Razzaq 109 Vs South Africa Match Winning Century Highlights

Friday, 18 November 2011

Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi Biography
Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi was born on 1 March 1980 in Khyber Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan, popularly known as Shahid Afridi, is a Pakistani cricketer and current One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 captain of the Pakistani national team in the international circuit. He made his ODI debut on 2 October 1996 against Kenya and his Test debut on 22 October 1998 against Australia.

Afridi is from the Afridi tribe of the Khyber Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and hails from a Pashtun family. He is married and has two daughters, Aqsa and Ansha.

He is known for his aggressive batting style, and holds the record for the fastest ODI century which he made in his first international innings, as well as scoring 32 runs in a single over, the second highest scoring over ever in an ODI. He also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket. Afridi considers himself a better bowler than batsman, and has taken 48 Test wickets and over 300 in ODIs. Currently Afridi is the leading wicket taker in the Twenty20 format taking 53 wickets from 41 matches.

In June 2009 Afridi took over the Twenty20 captaincy from Younus Khan, and was later appointed ODI captain for the 2010 Asia Cup. In his first match as ODI captain against Sri Lanka he scored a century however Pakistan still lost by 16 runs. He then also took over the Test captaincy but resigned after one match in charge citing lack of form and ability to play Test cricket; at the same time he announced his retirement from Tests. He retained the captaincy in limited-overs form of the game and led the team in the 2011 World Cup.

His general style of batting is very aggressive and attack oriented and has earned him the nickname “Boom Boom Afridi”. Moreover, out of the six fastest ODI centuries of all time, Afridi has produced three of them. As of 27 February 2011, he has an ODI strike rate of 113.83 runs per 100 balls, the third highest in the game’s history. This attitude has been transferred to Test cricket as well, with Afridi scoring at a relatively high strike rate of 86.13. He has an approach to batting that can change the tempo of a game and inspire the mood of an audience, as shown when a mass exodus of spectators occurred in Pakistan in late 2005 following his dismissal from the crease.

Having started as a fast bowler, Afridi decided to start bowling spin after someone told him he was throwing. He modelled himself on Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir. Afridi began his career as primarily a bowler, however after scoring the fastest century in his maiden ODI innings more was expected of him with the bat. He considers himself a better bowler than batsman. While he is renowned for his aggressive batting, he is also a handy leg-spinner capable of producing a good mix of wicket taking balls.

He has over 300 International wickets, most of which are from the ODI format. While his stock ball is the leg break, his armoury also includes the conventional off break and a ‘quicker one’ which he can deliver in the style of a medium-pacer. He bowls at a high speed for a spinner, resulting in lesser turn, and relying more on variations in speed. He occasionally sends down a bouncer to a batsman, which is very rare for a spin bowler.

Shahid Afridi

Star Cricketer Shahid Afridi Slams America - Slap On Pakistani Politicians & Intellectuals

shahid afridi batting 80 off 42 hampshire vs somerset semi final 27th aug 2011