Pakistani Cricket Players: 2011

Monday 11 July 2011

Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal Biography

Saeed Ajmal (born 14 October 1977 in Faisalabad) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler. Ajmal has played for Faisalabad since his debut in 1995 at the age of 18, also representing Khan Research Laboratories and occasionally Islamabad. After a successful season in 2007–08 for Khan Research Laboratories, he was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2008 Asia Cup. He made his debut against India, taking the wicket of Yusuf Pathan in an eight-wicket victory, before taking two wickets in a ten-wicket victory over Bangladesh, although the team had no chance of progressing to the competition's final.

Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal 10 wickets against West Indies

Saeed Ajmal Wickets

Thursday 7 July 2011

Umar Gul

Umar Gul Biography
Umar Gul (born 15 October 1984 in Peshawar) is a Pakistani cricketer who has played ten Test matches and 25 One Day Internationals for Pakistan as a specialist fast bowler. However, injury has prevented him from a long international career, as he was out of cricket for an entire season after his international debut. Gul was first called up for the team in April 2003, playing four one-day matches at the Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup against Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sri Lanka, where he took four wickets, and he was in and out of the one-day team after that tournament. However, he played the whole of the 2003�04 home series against Bangladesh, making his Test debut and taking 15 wickets in the three Tests, and took the second-most wickets of any Pakistani bowler in the series, behind Shabbir Ahmed with 17. However, Shoaib Akhtar, who took 13 in third place, only played two of the Tests. Gul was retained for the ODIs against Bangladesh, taking a List A best five for 17 in nine overs in the third match, and ended with 11 wickets in the 5�0 series win. However, he could still not command a regular spot, playing three of Pakistan's nine next ODIs before finally getting dropped after one for 36 against New Zealand. He played two Tests after that, however, taking four wickets in a drawn Test against New Zealand before coming in as replacement for Shabbir Ahmed in the second Test of the three-Test series against India. After coming on as first-change bowler, Gul dismissed Virender Sehwag with his second over, and then bowled unchanged for 12 overs either side of lunch to take five Indian top order wickets - including Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, who both had Test batting averages above 50, as did Sehwag. Gul finished with five for 31 in his spell, earning him commendation from Cricinfo journalist Dileep Premachandran, who praised his \"control of line and length\", and he was also named Man of the Match despite conceding runs at five an over in the second innings in a nine-wicket win. However, Gul was then ruled out of the third Test with a back injury which kept him out of cricket for an entire year. He returned to play two games at the 2004�05 Twenty20 Cup, and played some matches for Pakistan A and a Pakistan XI in warm-up games before the Test matches against England the following season, but he was not selected for the matches and has instead played three matches with Peshawar at the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Gul was selected in Pakistan squad for the 2006 tour of England as a replacement to the injured Shoaib Akhtar. Gul had signed a one year contract with Gloucestershire to play in 2007, but the Pakistan Cricket Board failed to give them their permission. Gul appeared in all three of Pakistan's group matches in the 2007 World Cup taking four wickets with an economy rate of 3.13, only Shane Bond of those to deliver 100 balls was more economical. He also appeared in all of Pakistan's matches at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 taking 3/15 of 4 overs in the semi-final victory over New Zealand. He took three wickets in the final to finish as the tournament's leading wicket-taker. In February 2008, Gul signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for US $150,000. He played in six matches, taking 12 wickets at an average of 15.33, including a player of the match award in Kolkata's final game in which Gul took 4-23 and scored 24 runs from 11 balls. In December 2008 Gul signed with the Western Warriors to compete in the Australian domestic 2008-09 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament. He performed very well in his debut match for the Warriors, taking 4 wickets for 15 runs in a losing side.

Umar Gul

Best of Umar Gul World Cup 2011

Umar Gul to V. Sehwag (Ind Pak Semi)

Sunday 3 July 2011

Shoaib Akhtar Biography

Shoaib Akhtar Biography

Shoaib Akhtar is a popular cricketer of Pakistan. He is one of the fastest bowlers in the world, through this, he got the nickname Rawalpindi Express.

He was born on 13th August, 1975 in Rawalpindi, Punjab. He is a mostly right arm fastest bowler and right handed batsman.

Akhtar’s tallness is 5.11 feet and great individuality player of the Pakistani cricket team. His father is a worker in the Attock Oil Refinery, Morgah, Punjab.

Akhtar set a world record by fastest bowling 160.9 km/h. He is a talented player and has a great capability to bowl fast Yorkers, swinging deliveries; reverse swing, well slow bowling and sharp bouncers have made him extra fatal on pitch.

Akhtar demonstrated his first outstanding bowling appearance in the pre-World Cup series that was against India in the year 1999.

He took superbly nine wickets in the Asian Test Championship match at Calcutta, and it was an surprising memorable performance.

Akhtar has become well recognized bowler on the international level but some due to controversies and bad attitude of his; He was prohibited by the Pakistan cricket board for an unsettled period.
He was interdicted for five years for publicly criticizing the policies of the Pakistan cricket board in the year 2008.

Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar 9 Wickets 1999 Tri Series vs India & Sri Lanka - GENIUS

Shoaib Akhtar at his Best

Saturday 2 July 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

Shahid Afridi 'The Match Winner' 51 & 2-16 vs South Africa 2009 T20 World Cup Semi Final

Shahid Afridi in Muskurati Morning With Faisal Qureshi on Tv One - Part 1/5