Pakistan Cricket Players Biography

Monday 9 June 2014

Umar Gul

Umar Gul Biography

source link (google.com)

Umar Gul (born 14 April 1984) is a Pakistani right arm fast medium bowler in cricket who has played Test matches,
One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for the Pakistani cricket team.
He has gained fame as one of the most successful bowlers in Twenty20 cricket finishing as the leading wicket taker and bowler in both the 2007 and 2009 Twenty20 World Championship tournaments.
Umar Gul is the second most highest wicket taker(74) in Twenty20 International cricket,only behind Saeed Ajmal.
He won the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year 2013.

Personal life

Gul was born in Peshawar of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan he was born in a middle-class family and frequently played tape-ball cricket.
People on the street encouraged Gul to become an international cricketer as they saw his excellent bowling. On October 2010 Gul's family announced that he was to wed a Dubai Doctor.
The doctor is from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and was born there as well. Gul's first daughter, Rehab Umar, was born in May 2012.
In the same month, Pakistan Army Commandos mistakenly raided Umar Gul's house in Peshawar and arrested his brother Meeraj Gul on the charge of hiding a wanted militant.
However, the commandos later on apologized to Meera.

Early career

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.

Test matches

He was recalled and played two Tests after that 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 in 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.

After a length injury lay-off, which kept him out of international cricket for nearly two years, Gul returned to the Pakistan fold in 2006.
Firstly with quiet away series against Sri Lanka then followed by a tour to England in 2006.
Gul was quickly made the lead bowler in the side due to the injuries to other front line bowlers.
Gul to 18 wickets in four tests, justifying the selectors faith in him.

Later in 2006, against West Indies at home, Gul had perhaps his most successful test series.
He took 16 wickets in 3 tests, including notable spells of reverse swing bowling. He was responsible for breaking Ramnaresh Sarwan's toe with a dipping yorker.

Test appearances however remained few and far between due to injuries and lack of test cricket for Pakistan.

In February 2009, Gul recorded his best test figures in the Pakistan team, taking 6 for 135 on a flat pitch.

In July 2010, Pakistan faced England at Trent Bridge and were 147/9 in their first innings.
Gul scored 30* before the day was called off due to bad light.
He returned the next day with Mohammad Asif and batted with intent to add another 35 runs in five overs.
This saw Pakistan avoid the follow-on against England and therefore survive an innings defeat.

Gul then suffered a hamstring injury in the second test when he was touring England in 2010 he was ruled out for three weeks that meant he would miss the remaining two tests.
However Gul managed to recover and became fit enough to play in the fourth test However they decided to rest Gul for the final test match despite the fact that he had recovered quicker than expected.

Umar Gul

Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal Biography

source link (google.com)

Kamran Akmal ( born 13 January 1982) is a Pakistani cricketer who has played Tests, ODIs and T20Is for Pakistan as a wicket-keeper.
He is a right-handed batsman. Akmal started his international career in November 2002 with a Test match which Pakistan won at Harare Sports Club.
He has made 2648 runs in 53 Test matches with the help of six centuries, while in 137 ODIs, he has scored 2924 runs with the help of five centuries.
In T20Is, he has scored 704 runs. As a wicket-keeper, he has dismissed 206, 169 and 52 batsmen in Tests, ODIs and T20Is respectively.

International career

Kamran Akmal is a quick-scoring batsman and a wicket-keeper, who has achieved 6 centuries in Test innings.
However, his first century was vital – his 109 from the number eight position at Mohali,
coming in with Pakistan in a lead of 39 against India in the first Test,
ensured that the visitors could draw the match.
His form against the touring English in 2005 made him one of the most important players in the team. Naturally,
he is a batsman that plays lower down the order but has sometimes opened in both Test and One-day cricket.
As an opener he has scored two back to back centuries in ODIs against England. Coming in lower down the order in Test matches,
he played one memorable innings. He saved Pakistan from a score of 39/6, scoring a century, to a competitive 245 which helped Pakistan win the match and the series.

His batting was highly productive in early 2006 as he scored seven international hundreds within the space of 6 months.
Since his tour of England in Summer 2006 however his batting form dwindled and steadily become worse.
His wicket-keeping also worsened and dropped many catches on both the England tour and on a tour to South Africa in early 2007.
He then scored an international hundred in the Bangladeshi tour of Pakistan in 2008.
He later moved to have some injuries and did not play for some days but later he was again brought into the team.

Akmal was dropped for the Asia Cup 2008 as a result of his poor wicket-keeping.
He was replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed who performed very well at the domestic level and also because of Sarfraz's strong showing in the U-19 World Cup.
Akmal was named in the 30 man probable squad for the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy.

Akmal was part of the Pakistan team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. He was notable for his quick stumpings, dismissing 4 batsmen in one match against Netherlands.

On 12 November 2008, Akmal hit two consecutive 6s in the last over. As a result Pakistan won the first ODI in Abu Dhabi against West Indies.

On 17 July 2010, Akmal was appointed the vice-captain of the Pakistani test squad but later removed because of his alleged involvement in spot fixing.

In August 2012, Akmal was recalled for the three ODI series against Australia.

Wicket-keeping

Kamran Akmal has been constantly criticized for his lack of consistent wicket-keeping.
After another horrendous series behind the stumps against Sri Lanka in January 2009 journalists and former players called for his removal from the national team.
His wicket-keeping steadily improved, with a very strong showing in the 2009 T20 World Cup, including a world-record performance of four stumpings in a single match against the Netherlands.
However during the second test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground he dropped four catches, including three chances from Michael Hussey in one session on Day 4.
Hussey went on to score a match winning century with the Pakistan team losing in a shock result after dominating the first three days of play.
He was subsequently dropped for the third test, being replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed. After this tour Akmal saw a steady improvement in his wicket-keeping for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20,
2010 Asia Cup and against Australia in July 2010 however the next test series against England saw Akmal drop three easy catches and miss a stumping.
The match as a consolation saw Akmal take a superb catch of Kevin Pietersen before dropping a catch on the very next ball against Paul Collingwood.
In the first innings Akmal dropped a catch of Eoin Morgan when he was on 23 who then went on to score 130.
Despite having another keeper, Zulqarnain Haider, in the squad, Pakistani captain Salman Butt announced it was too early in the series as only one match had been played to decide the fate of Kamran Akmal.

Personal life

Kamran Akmal comes from a large family, of which two of his brothers, Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal, are also professional cricketers,
the former being a keeper-batsman and the latter being a specialist batsman as well as part-time wicket-keeper.
He married in 2006 and lives with his wife, Aaiza, and their daughter, Laiba.
He is a graduate of Beaconhouse School System Garden Town, Lahore.

Kamran Akmal

Abdul Razzaq

Abdul Razzaq Biography

source link (google.com)

Abdul Razzaq ( born 2 December 1979) is a Pakistani right arm fast-medium bowler and a right-handed batsman and a member of Pakistan cricket team.
He emerged in international cricket in 1996 with his One Day International debut against Zimbabwe at his home ground in Gaddafi Stadium, Pakistan, just one month before his seventeenth birthday.
He has played 265 ODIs and 46 Tests for Pakistan.

Early career

Razzaq made his One Day International debut in November 1996, against Zimbabwe, but had to wait just over three years to make his Test cricket debut for Pakistan, eventually doing so against Australia in Brisbane on November 1999.
In the 1999–2000 Carlton and United Series, he rose to fame and was named man of the series for his all round performance. During a match in Hobart against India, Razzaq scored a half century and took five wickets.
In the same tournament, he hit former Australian fast bowler, Glenn McGrath for 5 fours, which totaled to 20 runs in one over.

1999 Cricket World Cup

Razzaq became a regular member of his national side during the 1999 world cup held in England. During the event, he got the attention of selectors as he performed well both with the ball and bat.
His brilliant performance with the bat came in the group match against Australia, where he went on to score his first half century making 60 runs in a long and stable partnership with Inzamam-ul-Haq,
which helped Pakistan reach a defendable target of 275. Pakistan went on to win the match by ten runs and as a result qualified for the Super Six stage. With the ball,
he made a brilliant performance against the tough West Indian cricket team by taking three wickets for 32 runs having three maiden overs, which proved decisive for Pakistan at Bristol.

Subsequent Years

In 2000, Razzaq became the youngest cricketer in the world to take a Test cricket hat trick in a match against Sri Lanka. He has scored three centuries and twenty two fifties in One Day International matches.
His highest score was 112 runs, against South Africa in 2002, where he shared a partnership of 257 runs with Pakistani batsman Saleem Elahi. His second century was scoring 107 runs not out in a match against Zimbabwe in 2004.
During this match, he saved Pakistan from a disastrous start and eventually won them the match. His first fifty came in 90 deliveries, before accelerating in the second fifty runs, which was scored in just 21 balls.
Also in 2003–2004, he scored 89 runs from 40 balls against New Zealand, whose captain Stephen Fleming called him the "best hitter" in the world In January 2005,
He 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 Australia.

As a fast bowler, Razzaq experienced a steady decline in speed and performance during the 2003 cricket World Cup and 2004. During this period, he remained as a supporting bowler.
However, from 2005 to the end of 2006, he regained his speed and he won many matches for Pakistan with his bowling. His best bowling figures in a One Day International match is 6 wickets for 35 runs.
His another notable performance was against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 1999, where Pakistan was all out for 196 runs and he took 5 wickets for 31 runs to draw the match.
During the 2005–2006 Test match series against India, Razzaq took 9 wickets and scored 205 runs in two Test matches he played, which resulted in an improvement of his performance.
His batting remained generally consistent from 2000 to 2006, although his place on the Test team was never secure.

Razzaq's place in the Pakistan national team has been marred by injuries and absences. In 2005 it was revealed that he was suffering from an addiction to spinach, which was causing him to suffer from nausea and sickness while playing.
This led to him being known as 'Popeye' by his team mates. In 2007, a poor performance in a series with both the bat and ball, in a match against South Africa, accompanied with an injury that forced him out of the 2007 cricket World Cup,
had him dropped from the 2007 World Twenty20, a decision that received widespread criticism from cricket individuals.

Abdul Razzaq

Umar Akmal

Umar Akmal Biography

source link (google.com)

Umar Akmal ( born 26 May 1990) is a Pakistani cricketer.
He made his ODI debut on 1 August 2009 against Sri Lanka and made his Test debut against New Zealand on 23 November 2009.
He is a right-handed batsman and a part-time spinner.
Like his two brothers, Adnan and Kamran, Umar has kept wicket for the national team and his wife name is noor fatima.

He was announced as a Franchise Player for the inaugural Caribbean Premier League alongside Pakistani teammates Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik

Personal life

Umar is the youngest brother of Adnan Akmal and Kamran Akmal who are also cricketers, both wicket-keepers.

Early career

Umar represented Pakistan in the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia.
After his success at the U-19 level he earned himself a first class contract and played the 2007-08 season of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, representing the Sui Southern Gas team.
He is considered a future asset for Pakistan cricket. He is an aggressive style cricketer. In only his sixth first class match he smashed 248 off just 225 deliveries, including four sixes.
He followed that up with an unbeaten 186 in his 8th first class match, off just 170 balls. He fared less well in his second season of first class cricket, with a string of low scores batting at number 3.
He found form in the final few matches of the 2008/09 season and then in the RBS T20 tournament thus getting the selectors nod to play for Pakistan A side on their tour to Australia A.

Test career

Umar made his Test debut against New Zealand at Dunedin on 23 November 2009.
On the third day of his debut test, Umar Akmal hit 129 runs from 160 balls becoming only the second Pakistani to score a hundred on debut away from home after Fawad Alam.
This feat also made him the first Pakistani batsman to score both his maiden Test and ODI century away from home, following his ODI century against Sri Lanka. T
he innings was noted as special due to Pakistan's tough position in the match and the hundred partnership which Akmal was involved in alongside his elder brother Kamran.
He followed up the century in the first innings with a fifty in the second innings.

In only his second Test match he was moved up the order to the crucial spot of number 3, where he struggled initially but managed to counter-attack the hostile bowling with his natural flair, making 46 before he was undone by an inswinger by Daryl Tuffey.
In the second innings he was moved down the order to his usual batting spot of number 5 as captain Mohammed Yousuf chose to bat at number 3 himself, and Akmal looked his usual aggressive self throughout his innings of 52 which came off only 33 balls.
He had his first failure in the first innings of the third test at Napier where he was caught in the gully for a duck but scored a rearguard 77 in the second, promoting him to the leading run scorer of the series.
Akmal finished the tour with 400 runs at an average of 57.14.

Umar Akmal's early success was briefly tarnished by a controversy during Pakistan's 2009–10 tour of Australia.
It was widely reported that Umar had feigned an injury to protest the dropping of older brother Kamran for the final Test match against Australia.
Umar denied such rumors and played in the final match without his brother. He was later fined 2-3 million rupees by the PCB for breaching his contract and speaking to the media without approval.

ODI and Twenty20 career

In an interview, Umar said "My own dream is to one day play for Pakistan alongside Kamran Bhai (Brother) and I'm working hard to try and achieve that goal".
Akmal was selected in Pakistan's squad for the One Day International Series against Sri Lanka in July/August 2009.
Having missed out on the first ODI Umar made his debut in the second match of the series replacing Mohammad Yousuf in the middle order.
In only his second career ODI Umar scored his maiden ODI fifty. Umar followed up his maiden fifty by scoring a century in the very next match.
For this match winning effort he was awarded his first career Man of the Match award. His exploits in Sri Lanka earned him a place in Pakistan's champions trophy squad. He played two good innings.
His 41 not out against West Indies was a match winning knock and landed him his second career Man of the Match award.
His next big innings came in the semi final against New Zealand, where he scored a brisk 55 in a losing effort, before he was wrongly given out by umpire Simon Taufel, who later apologized.
Despite the fact that Umar Akmal is not a wicket-keeper he kept wicket for Pakistan temporarily in the third ODI against England in 2010 from the 27th over onwards because his elder brother Kamran was being diagnosed for an injury to his finger.
Umar Akmal scored 71 runs from 52 balls in his debut World Cup match and was named Man of the Match.

In February 2012 Pakistan faced England in four ODIs. Pakistan's brittle batting meant the team management chose to play Umar as a wicket-keeper based on his batting, though his brother Adnan was considered the better 'keeper.
The result of choosing the less accomplished glovesman was that in the first two matches Umar Akmal missed opportunities to dismiss Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook early in their innings, and they respectively went on to score a half-century and a century.

Umar Akmal

Ahmed Shehzad

Ahmed Shehzad Biography

source link (google.com)

Ahmed Shehzad ( born 23 November 1991) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-handed opening batsman and also a part-time legbreak bowler.
He plays domestic cricket for Habib Bank Limited. He made his One Day International debut for Pakistan on 24 April 2009 against Australia and also debut T20I on 7 May 2009 against same team.

Personal life

Ahmed Shehzad was born on 23 November 1991 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Shehzad is active on the social networking site Twitter (@iamahmadshahzad)

Career

In limited-overs domestic cricket Ahmed Shehzad plays for Lahore Lions and in June 2011 during the Faysal Bank T-20 Super Eights Shehzad top scored the innings by scoring 74 of 47 balls imposing a mammoth total of 218 against the opposition Sialkot Stallions.
Who in turn were bowled out for 173 Shehzad took two-catches and a wicket as well he was rewarded man-of the match for his superb performance.

Against Australia, in his debut match, he scored one boundary before he was ran-out. The following match he scored 40 in an innings that included 4 fours.
The third match he scored 43 but this time just scored 2 fours and in the final match of the series he scored 19 with 1 boundary to his name before he was given out leg-before.

These consistent performances meant that Shehzad made his Twenty20 debut against Australia scoring a single boundary before being caught in the deep.
Despite a failure in the Twenty20 Shehzad was selected for the Pakistan squad in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and he only played one game which was the opening game against England, being caught by Paul Collingwood.
Thereafter, Pakistan changed their opening combination removing Shehzad and his partner Salman Butt and replacing them with Shahzaib Hasan and Kamran Akmal.

After batting at number 3 in the first two matches of a Twenty20 International series against New Zealand, Shehzad replaced Shahid Afridi as opener and scored his maiden Twenty20 half-century scoring 54 of just 34 balls in an innings that included 10 fours.
After that series, the Pakistan selectors picked Shehzad for the six-match ODI series against New Zealand with a potential place as a World Cup opener also available.
After scoring 115 an ODI against New Zealand during the series, Shehzad was given a place in the Pakistan world cup squad.

In his 15 T20Is Shehzad struck six sixes en route to the highest score by a Pakistani batsman 98* in the Twenty20 format, but missed an opportunity to reach three figures when he could only manage a single from the final ball of the innings.

The Barisal Burners bought Shehzad for $50,000 to pay in the 2012 Bangladesh Premier League. With 486 runs from 12 matches, Shehzad was the tournament's leading run-scorer.

On 30th March, in the T20 world cup group match against Bangladesh, he became the first Pakistani batsman to have scored centuries in all three formats, his match-winning knock of an unbeaten 111 off 62 deliveries earned him a man of the match award.

Test career

Ahmed Shehzad was shortlisted for the Pakistan A match against South Africa in the UAE in October 2013. He scored a fifty in the game and was selected for one of the 3 remaining slots in the Test squad alongside Shan Masood and Asad Shafiq.
He was, however, not selected in the playing XI in either of the 2 Tests against South Africa. Shehzad again selected for the three Tests against Sri Lanka, also in the UAE, starting on 31 December 2013, and stretching to January 2014.
This was based on good showing in the limited overs leg of the tour. He debuted in the first Test, and was presented his first Test cap by Younis Khan. He scored 38 in the first innings and 55 in the second. The match was drawn.

In his 3rd test match Shehzad scored a maiden century aganinst Sri Lanka. He scored 147 run from 275 balls and batted for 339 minutes, hit 12 fours and a six.

Ahmed Shehzad