Younus Khan

یونس خان

Personal information
Full name	Mohammad Younus Khan
Born	(1977-11-29) 29 November 1977 (age 34) Mardan, NWFP (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm medium, Legbreak
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Pakistan
Test debut (cap 159)	26 February 2000 v Sri Lanka
Last Test	3 February 2012 v England
ODI debut (cap 131)	17 December 2000 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	6 December 2011 v Bangladesh
ODI shirt no.	75
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1998–2005	Peshawar
1999–	Habib Bank Limited
2005	Nottinghamshire
2006–	Peshawar Panthers
2007	Yorkshire (squad no. 75)
2008	Rajasthan Royals
2008/09–	South Australia
2010	Surrey
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	76	234	165	296
Runs scored	6,398	6,657	12,095	8,576
Batting average	52.44	32.79	51.25	34.44
100s/50s	20/25	6/45	38/49	10/56
Top score	313	144	313	144
Balls bowled	666	229	3,000	1,121
Wickets	7	3	38	28
Bowling average	58.57	86.66	45.76	38.25
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/23	1/3	4/52	3/5
Catches/stumpings	86/–	121/–	177/–	161/–
Source: Cricinfo, 7 January 2012

Pride of Performance Award Recipient
Younis Khan was recipient of the Pride of Performance Award 2010[1]
Presented by	Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Date	2010
Country	Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Mohammad Younus Khan (Pashto, Urdu: محمد یونس خان) (born 29 November 1977) is a Pakistani cricketer and former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Younus' name is often spelled Younis Khan, but he has been quoted as saying, "My name is Younus Khan. I tell people that everywhere, but they don’t listen."^[2] He is only the third Pakistani player to score 300 or more runs in an innings.^[3]

On 10 March 2010, Younus, along with another player, Mohammad Yousuf were axed by the Pakistan Cricket Board from playing for Pakistan in any format for an indefinite period, following an inquiry report which suggested that both the player were involved in breaches of discipline by inciting divisions within the team.^[4] The ban was overturned three months later.^[5] Presently Younus is a key member in the ODI and Test match side, by February 2012 Younus reached his 20th test match century against England.^[6]

Career[link]

International career[link]

Younus Khan made his international debut in an ODI against Sri Lanka at Karachi in February 2000, and has since played over 150 ODIs for Pakistan. He has also played in over 50 Test matches. Younus was one of the few batsmen who retained his place in the team after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup campaign in 2003, but 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.

It was his return to the side in October 2004, at the pivotal one-down, against Sri Lanka in Karachi that 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 Younus was elevated to vice-captain, he blossomed. After a horror start to the series he came back strongly, capping things off with 267 in the final Test. It was his highest Test score and came off 504 balls in the first innings, to set up a series levelling victory in Bangalore.

As well as being an accomplished batsman, Younus is also a skilled slip fielder and a very occasional leg-spin bowler. He has performed particularly well outside Pakistan, including on tours of Australia, India, England and Sri Lanka. In the six Tests he has played against India, Younus averages an exceptional 106, the highest average against India by a Pakistani.^[7] Apart from his 267 at Bangalore, Younus also made 147 at Kolkata in 2005 and a pair of centuries during India's trip to Pakistan in 2006. 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. Also in 2006, Younus made a century in the third Test against England at Headingley. On 22 January 2007, he scored a matchwinning 67 not out in the 4th innings to guide Pakistan to victory over South Africa in Port Elizabeth. The five wicket win levelled the series at 1–1.

In 2005, he was one of the 15 nominees for the ICC Test Player of the Year. He is the second fastest Pakistani in terms of innings to reach 4000 Test runs, behind Javed Miandad. Younus reached the milestone in 87 innings, just one more than Sachin Tendulkar took.^[8]

Younus Khan topped the ICC's Test Batting Rankings in February 2009 after an acclaimed innings of 313 in his first test as captain, in the process of helping save the match for Pakistan.^[9] His ranking score of 880 is the third highest achieved by a Pakistani batsmen after Mohammad Yousuf (933), Javed Miandad (885) and just ahead of Inzamam-ul-Haq (870).^[10]

Captaincy situation[link]

He first led Pakistan against the West Indies in 2005. In September 2006, he was offered the position of captain for the course of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, following the suspension of Inzamam ul Haq. He turned down the offer, stating he did not want to be a "dummy captain".^[11] However, on the morning of 7 October 2006 the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Khan would lead his team in the tournament.^[12] Following the resignation of Inzamam after the side's exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Khan was offered the captaincy on a permanent basis, but turned it down. He blamed the angry reaction by the Pakistani public to side's early exit from the tournament.^[13]

After Pakistan's 2009 2 matches to 1 defeat to Sri Lanka, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt appointed Younus Khan as the permanent captain of both the Test and ODI teams. The appointment became effective as of 27 January 2009.^[14] Shortly after accepting the post Younus was quoted as saying, "I will try and fix things that aren't right at the moment...I want our team to be consistent above all, in everything we do and that will require everyone to put their hands up."^[15] Younus went on to say that he expects full support from former captain Shoaib Malik whom he called a senior player in the side.

Resignation from captaincy[link]

Khan resigned as captain on 13 October 2009 due to an parliamentary investigation into match fixing that was alleged to have taken place during his reign. Despite being cleared in the investigation, Khan said "Yes I have submitted my resignation because I am disgusted by these match-fixing allegations made against me and the team."^[16]

Khan also dropped a catch of Grant Elliott in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy semi-final. He had a hair-line fracture in his finger prior to the match. Later PCB Chairman requested Khan to take back his resignation and Khan did it under his conditions. However after captaining the team for a three-match series against New Zealand Younis took a break for test matches in New Zealand and the series in Australia the captaincy was given to Mohammad Yousuf and since then Younis has not captained the national team.

Post-captaincy: sacking, troubles and return (2010)[link]

Younus's career after he gave up the captaincy continued on a downwards spiral as he was banned on 10 March 2010. Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Younus Khan had been banned indefinitely for "infighting which brought down the whole team during the tour of Australia in January".^[17] His ban was however overturned three months later in June 2010.^[5] Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, Younus was not selected for the series against England.^[18] Pakistan continued to suffer frequent batting collapses against England in Test cricket; this put the Pakistan Cricket Board under pressure to restore Younus to the game, also Pakistani batsman and Test Captain Salman Butt was suspended on being involved in Spot-Fixing this resulted in several former captains including Moin Khan and Zaheer Abbas wanting Younus reinstated to the test team as captain.^[19] However the Pakistan Cricket Board did not clear Younis Khan for selection on the tours of South Africa in 2010 and despite being the first-choice captain for the selectors panel Mohsin Khan announced that Misbah-ul-Haq was recalled and made captain due to the PCB refusing to clear Younis Khan for selection.^[20] Signs of an improvement in the relationship of the Pakistan Cricket Board and Younis Khan began to emerge after the board contacted Younis to potentially be selected for the tour Against South Africa in October 2010^[21]

On 31 August 2010, the Daily Telegraph in its news article mentioned that Younus Khan was associated with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed, Younus threatened to sue the Daily Telegraph over the fact that they posted false information about Younus. The Daily Telegraph admitted that they incorrectly reported that Younus Khan was affiliated with Mazhar Majeed after a full public apology by the Daily Telegraph, Younus dropped the defamation charges against the newspaper^[22] The Pakistan Cricket Board subsequently announced that they had successfully reconciled with Younus Khan and that they intended to use him on the tour of South Africa in October 2010 as a replacement for the injured Mohammad Yousuf^[23] On his comeback ODI against South Africa, Younus Khan scored 54 runs. Younus then confirmed a statement by Pakistan captain Rashid Latif that he had not apologised to the PCB for his actions. As he believed he had committed nothing wrong. He also stated that the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt did not ask Younus to apologise either.^[24][25] His on-field comeback went well when he scored 74 runs and anchored Pakistan's innings Pakistan eventually won the fourth ODI against South Africa by 1 wicket. His first test match in over 12 months also went well when he scored a century in the second innings of the first test against South Africa this century along with a 168 run partnership with captain Misbah-ul-Haq allowed Pakistan to salvage a draw. Younus eventually finished unbeaten on 131^[26] During this match he along with Misbah-ul-Haq led Pakistan to another feat by the end of his innings of 131 it became Pakistan's highest score of all time while batting in the fourth innings with Pakistan at 343/3.

New Zealand test series: 2011[link]

Younis Khan walks back to the pavilion during a practice match against Auckland.

Younus played in the two-match test series against New Zealand and Younus scored 23 in the first innings and was not required to bat in the second innings as Pakistan sealed a 10-wicket victory. During the first innings of the second test match Younus was given caught incorrectly at short-leg when on 73. In the post-match interview Younus took the view the umpires are humans they make mistakes but they should reduce the errors they make, also he called for the UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) to be used in all test matches so that if an error is made it can be referred.^[27]

Twenty20 Cricket (2007 – present)[link]

Pakistan captain Younis Khan announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket after leading his team to the ICC World Twenty20 title by beating Sri Lanka at Lord's Sri Lanka suffered an 8 wicket thrashing.

"This is my last Twenty20 game [for Pakistan], so I am retiring from T20 internationals," Younis said "I am now 31, I am old for this kind of cricket." No immediate announcement was made as to the identity of his successor as 20-over captain, it was confirmed on 29 July 2009 that Shahid Afridi would succeed him as the Twenty20 Captain.

However after Younus returned to the national setup he announced that he was willing to play Twenty20 cricket for Pakistan as a senior batsman^[28] Younus then confirmed that he was available to play in all three-formats of the game. He also announced that he was no longer in the race for the captaincy^[29] After announcing his comeback to Twenty20 cricket Younus was selected for the three match Twenty20 series against New Zealand in December 2010. Younus played in all three-matches but struggled for form

Domestic career[link]

Australian first-class cricket[link]

In 2008–09, Younus is playing for the Southern Redbacks in Australia's domestic circuit on a short-term basis. He scored a century against Queensland Bulls in the first innings of a Sheffield shield match in Brisbane, which helped the Redbacks to win their first Shield match for a year.

County Cricket[link]

Younus batting for Surrey in the FPt20 in England.

In 2005, Younus played county cricket for Nottinghamshire in England. In the 2007 English domestic cricket season, played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club as an overseas player. In doing so he was the third overseas Asian cricketer to play for Yorkshire following Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, and was succeeded by Pakistani player Inzamam-ul-Haq.

On his County Championship debut for Yorkshire, he made a disappointing 4 runs from 4 balls in his first innings, being bowled by Rikki Clarke of Surrey, and just 12 in his second innings.^[30] However, on his one-day debut in the Friends Provident Trophy, Younus hit a superb 100 from 92 balls against Nottinghamshire to lead Yorkshire to victory.^[31]

He made his first County Championship century, 106 off 151 balls, for Yorkshire against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in the third match of the season and followed it up with an unbeaten double hundred, 202 off 290 balls, in the second innings to steer Yorkshire to a confident declaration. In doing so, Younus became the first Yorkshire player to score a century and a double century in the same match. Younus also made a useful contribution bowling during Hampshire's second innings, picking up four wickets for just 52 runs, however despite his and the team's efforts the match ended in a draw.^[32] He repeated the feat of an unbeaten double century at Scarborough in a rain-affected drawn match with Kent. He played a superb innings to finish on 217* off just 252 balls with 18 fours and 6 sixes. He left Yorkshire following the 8-wicket drubbing of Glamorgan Dragons. However, the nature of the victory denied him of the chance to sign off in a fitting matter as he was not required to bat.

He signed for Surrey for the 2010 season.^[33]

Indian Premier League[link]

In 2008 Younus signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by the Rajasthan Royals for a bid of $225,000 USD. He however played only 1 match in the tournament against Kings XI Punjab and scored 1 run.

Playing style[link]

Younus is regarded as one of the best players of spin bowling in the world, being particularly strong on the leg side. His favourite and trademark shot is the flick, but it has also been his shortcoming, with him being particularly prone to falling lbw during the early stages of his innings. He is also prone to getting down on one knee and driving extravagantly. But this flamboyance is coupled with grit. One of his main weaknesses is playing away from the body, he also has a tendency to leave straight balls, a trait that has been exploited by bowlers in the past, particularly by the Australian attack. Along with Mohammad Yousuf and the now retired Inzamam-ul-Haq, he formed a formidable middle order batting line up for Pakistan.

Younus is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the third highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket (joint with Andrew Symonds), with the highest success rate.^[34]

Statistics[link]

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Younus's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

The following tables illustrate a summary of the Test and ODI centuries scored by Younus Khan.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Test centuries[link]

Test Centuries of Younus Khan
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	107	1	Sri Lanka	Rawalpindi, Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium	2000
[2]	116	8	Sri Lanka	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2000
[3]	149*	10	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	2001
[4]	119	16	Bangladesh	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Chittagong Stadium	2002
[5]	153	18	West Indies	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	Sharjah Stadium	2002
[6]	124	29	Sri Lanka	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2004
[7]	147	34	India	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	2005
[8]	267	35	India	Bengaluru, India	Chinnaswamy Stadium	2005
[9]	106	37	West Indies	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2005
[10]	199	40	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2006
[11]	194	41	India	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	2006
[12]	173	46	England	Leeds, England	Headingley Stadium	2006
[13]	126	54	South Africa	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2007
[14]	130	55	South Africa	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2007
[15]	107*	57	India	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	2007
[16]	313	59	Sri Lanka	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2009
[17]	131*	63	South Africa	Dubai, UAE	DSC Cricket Stadium	2010
[18]	122	71	Sri Lanka	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Stadium	2011
[19]	200*	72	Bangladesh	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	2011
[20]	127	72	England	Dubai, UAE	DSC Cricket Stadium	2012

One-Day International centuries[link]

ODI Centuries of Younus Khan
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	144	103	Hong Kong	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2004
[2]	101	137	England	Southampton, England	Rose Bowl Stadium	2006
[3]	117	158	India	Mohali, India	Punjab C.A. Stadium	2007
[4]	108	170	India	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium	2008
[5]	123*	174	India	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2008
[6]	101	178	West Indies	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Sheikh Zayed Stadium	2008

Career Best Performances[link]

As of 11 December 2011:

	Batting				Bowling
	Score	Fixture	Venue	Season	Score	Fixture	Venue	Season
Tests	313	Pakistan v  Sri Lanka	Karachi	2009	2–23	Pakistan v  Sri Lanka	Galle	2009
ODI	144	Pakistan v  Hong Kong	Colombo (SSC)	2004	1–3	Pakistan v  Hong Kong	Karachi	2008
T20I	51	Pakistan v  Sri Lanka	Johannesburg	2007	3–18	Pakistan v  Kenya	Nairobi	2007
FC	313	Pakistan v  Sri Lanka	Karachi	2009	4–52	Yorkshire v Hampshire	The Rose Bowl	2007
LA	144	Pakistan v  Hong Kong	Colombo (SSC)	2004	3–5	Nottinghamshire v Gloucestershire	Cheltenham	2005
T20	70	Peshawar Panthers v Islamabad Leopards	Lahore	2009	3–18	Pakistan v  Kenya	Nairobi	2007

Personal life[link]

He married his wife Amna on 30 March 2007, and their son Owais was born on 26 December 2007.^[35]

Younus had to deal with a number of deaths in his family during 2005 and 2006. Earlier in 2005 he had to fly back from a tour to Australia after his father had died. Later in the year during the England tour to Pakistan, Younus' eldest brother, Mohammed Sharif Khan, aged 41, died in a car accident in Ukraine, who in Youins's words taught him to play cricket.^[36] Another older brother, Farman Ali Khan was only 39, when he was killed in a car accident in Germany, in December 2006.

Younus was batting in the second ODI against West Indies in Faisalabad when the news of his brother's death reached the team management. Younus only came to know about the situation after he returned to the pavilion at the end of his innings. Younus, immediately, left for his home town Mardan and did not participate in any of the remaining matches.

Younus also mentioned his grief at the death of Bob Woolmer in March 2007 after Pakistan's exit from the World Cup. He stated that he saw Bob as a father figure after the loss of his own father and that he was able to share many personal thoughts with the cricket coach.^[37]

During a tour of the West Indies in May 2011, Younus was given permission to return home early due to the death of his elder brother Shamshad Khan in Germany.^[38]

He is known to enjoy fishing, when not playing cricket.^[36]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Younus Khan Video from UNICEF
• Cricinfo page on Younus Khan
• Player Profile: Younis Khan Yorkshire
• Player Profile (Tests) by HowSTAT!

v t e Pakistan squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Waqar Younis (c) 2 Abdul Razzaq 3 Azhar Mahmood 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq 5 Mohammad Sami 6 Rashid Latif (wk) 7 Saeed Anwar 8 Saleem Elahi 9 Saqlain Mushtaq 10 Shahid Afridi 11 Shoaib Akhtar 12 Taufeeq Umar 13 Wasim Akram 14 Younis Khan 15 Yousuf Youhana Coach: Richard Pybus

v t e Pakistan squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup 1 Inzamam-ul-Haq (c) 2 Younis Khan 3 Azhar Mahmood 4 Danish Kaneria 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Imran Nazir 7 Kamran Akmal (wk) 8 Mohammad Hafeez 9 Mohammad Sami 10 Mohammad Yousuf 11 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 12 Shahid Afridi 13 Shoaib Malik 14 Umar Gul 15 Yasir Arafat Coach: Woolmer Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq were named in the original squad but injuries led to them being withdrawn. Mushtaq Ahmed acted as temporary coach for Pakistan's final group game following the death of Bob Woolmer.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2007 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Salman Butt 2 Shahid Afridi 3 Imran Nazir 4 Shoaib Malik 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Misbah-ul-Haq 7 Kamran Akmal 8 Fawad Alam 9 Mohammad Asif 10 Yasir Arafat 11 Sohail Tanvir 12 Abdur Rehman 13 Umar Gul 14 Younis Khan 15 Mohammad Hafeez Coach: Geoff Lawson Shoaib Akhtar was replaced by Sohail Tanvir due to a dressing room incident before the tournament.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Winners (1st Title) 1 Younis Khan 2 Abdul Razzaq 3 Ahmed Shehzad 4 Fawad Alam 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Misbah-ul-Haq 7 Kamran Akmal (wk) 8 Mohammad Amir 9 Saeed Ajmal 10 Salman Butt 11 Shahid Afridi 12 Shahzaib Hasan 13 Shoaib Malik 14 Umar Gul 15 Yasir Arafat 16 Sohail Tanvir Coach: Intikhab Alam Shoaib Akhtar and Yasir Arafat were named in the original squad but injuries led to them being withdrawn. Abdul Razzaq was sent as a replacement for Yasir Arafat.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 8 Mohammad Hafeez 10 Shahid Afridi (c) 12 Abdul Razzaq 14 Shoaib Akhtar 19 Ahmed Shehzad 22 Misbah-ul-Haq 23 Kamran Akmal (wk) 36 Abdur Rehman 47 Wahab Riaz 50 Saeed Ajmal 55 Umar Gul 75 Younus Khan 81 Asad Shafiq 96 Umar Akmal 99 Junaid Khan Coach: Waqar Younis Sohail Tanvir was named in the original squad but injuries led to him being withdrawn. Junaid Khan was sent as his replacement

Umar Gul

عمرگل

Personal information
Full name	Umar Gul
Born	(1984-04-14) 14 April 1984 (age 28) Peshawar, Pakistan
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Batting style	Right hand bat
Bowling style	Right arm fast medium
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	Pakistan
Test debut (cap 175)	20 August 2003 v Bangladesh
Last Test	3 February 2012 v England
ODI debut (cap 145)	3 April 2003 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI	22 March 2012 v Bangladesh
T20I debut	4 September 2007 v Kenya
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2003–	Peshawar
2006–	Habib Bank Limited
2008–2009	Western Australia
2008	North-West Frontier Province
2001–2006	Pakistan International Airlines
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	T20I	FC
Matches	43	98	36	75
Runs scored	541	291	90	1,007
Batting average	10.82	8.81	10.00	12.58
100s/50s	0/1	0/0	0/0	0/1
Top score	65*	34*	30	65*
Balls bowled	8,861	4,567	775	14,686
Wickets	157	143	50	300
Bowling average	32.47	26.73	15.50	27.94
5 wickets in innings	4	2	1	14
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	n/a	1
Best bowling	6/135	6/42	5/6	8/78
Catches/stumpings	9/–	12/–	10/–	17/-
Source: Cricinfo, 8 February 2012

Umar Gul (Urdu: عمرگل, Pashto: عمر ګل) (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.^[1][2] 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.^[3][4]

Personal life[link]

Gul was born in the 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 superb 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 she was born there as well.^[5][6][7] On 30th may 2012, Pakistan Army raided Umar Gul's house in Peshawar and arrested his brother on the charge of hiding a wanted militant.^[8]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

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,^[9] 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[link]

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",^[10] 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 an otherwise 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.^[11]

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^[12] However they decided to rest Gul for the final test match despite the fact that he had recovered quicker than expected.

His next chance to play test cricket came against South Africa in November 2010 when he took 3 wickets in a first innings and triggered a South African collapse of 380 on a flat wicket. He took the crucial wicket with an excellent inswinger against AB de Villiers^[13]

Twenty20[link]

With injuries limiting Gul's test cricket participation, he made a distinct change to his bowling set-up. Making a focus on bowling in the late overs of T20. He got his opportunity with the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa. He was generally used by Pakistan from the 13th over onwards and finished the tournament with 13 wickets, making him the leading wicket taker ahead of Shahid Afridi and RP Singh.

In the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, he performed excellently, earning the mantle from at least one pundit of "the outstanding seam bowler of the World Twenty20".^[14] His five-wicket haul for just six runs when Pakistan dismantled New Zealand won especial acclaim. The spell made him the first bowler in history to take a five wickets in a Twenty20 international, and he held the record of best T20I bowling figures until 8 August 2011, when surpassed by Ajantha Mendis (6/16).^[15] Mutterings were made about a possible correlation between ball tampering and the exorbitant amounts of reverse-swing he was able to extract, but he denied them categorically: "Whenever an Asian bowler performs and uses the reverse-swing, the Western cricketing countries raise the issue of ball-tampering against them."^[16]

He was also part of the Pakistan team that lifted the trophy at Lord's while also finishing as the leading wicket taker of the tournament for the second consecutive time.^[17]

He gained a lot of wickets bowled, in particular with late reverse swinging yorkers, which dip late to slide under the bat and leave little room for batsmen to maneuver the ball. Consequently he has also an excellent economy rate in this format of the game.

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.^[18] He played in six matches, taking 12 wickets at an average of 15.33,^[19] 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.^[20]

In December 2008 Gul signed with the Western Warriors to compete in the Australian domestic 2008-09 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament.^[21] He performed very well in his debut match for the Warriors, taking 4 wickets for 15 runs in a losing side. He was amongst the most successful bowlers in the competition despite not being available for the entire tournament he finished second top wicket taker with 12 wickets.^[22]

Internationally, Gul has taken 47 wickets in just 32 games at an average of 14.65, a truly outstanding statistic. He is the second leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals behind teammate Shahid Afridi

One Day Internationals[link]

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.^[23] 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.^[24]

Batting-skills[link]

Despite the fact that Gul is a bowler he can perform well as a lower order batsman and has proved that he has the ability to score runs quickly he finest moment with the bat came in a test match vs England in August 2010 when Pakistan were at 103/7 and Gul came into bat he scored 29 of 30 deliveries when play was ended on that day however two more wickets had fallen and the team were at 148/9 by night-time Pakistan would need 11 runs to avoid the follow-on. Gul then came and with his number 10 partner Mohammad Asif; Gul scored 34 runs in just 11 deliveries however his partner Mohammad Asif was run out at the other end and Gul ended on 65*.

Injuries[link]

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 Faysal Bank T20 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 had signed a one year contract with Gloucestershire to play in 2007, but the Pakistan Cricket Board failed to give them their permission.^[25]

Shortly after making a six-month come-back from a shoulder injury in July 2010 Gul picked up a hamstring injury against England in August but it wasn't too serious and he only missed the two Test matches.

Five-wicket hauls[link]

Umar Gul, after taking five-for in Twenty20 International Cricket, became the first ever bowler to own five wickets haul in all international formats of the game.

ODI Five-wicket hauls[link]

	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
1	5/17	10	Bangladesh	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2003
2	6/42	72	England	London, England	The Oval	2010

Twenty20 International five-wicket hauls[link]

	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
1	5/6	18	New Zealand	London, England	The Oval	2009

Test cricket Five-wicket hauls[link]

	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
1	5/31	5	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2004
2	5/123	9	England	Leeds, England	Headingley	2006
3	5/65	11	West Indies	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2006
4	6/135	16	Sri Lanka	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2009

References[link]

External links[link]

• Player profile: Umar Gul from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Umar Gul from CricketArchive
• Player Profile: Umar Gul from Yahoo! Cricket

v t e Pakistan squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup 1 Inzamam-ul-Haq (c) 2 Younis Khan 3 Azhar Mahmood 4 Danish Kaneria 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Imran Nazir 7 Kamran Akmal (wk) 8 Mohammad Hafeez 9 Mohammad Sami 10 Mohammad Yousuf 11 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 12 Shahid Afridi 13 Shoaib Malik 14 Umar Gul 15 Yasir Arafat Coach: Woolmer Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq were named in the original squad but injuries led to them being withdrawn. Mushtaq Ahmed acted as temporary coach for Pakistan's final group game following the death of Bob Woolmer.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2007 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Salman Butt 2 Shahid Afridi 3 Imran Nazir 4 Shoaib Malik 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Misbah-ul-Haq 7 Kamran Akmal 8 Fawad Alam 9 Mohammad Asif 10 Yasir Arafat 11 Sohail Tanvir 12 Abdur Rehman 13 Umar Gul 14 Younis Khan 15 Mohammad Hafeez Coach: Geoff Lawson Shoaib Akhtar was replaced by Sohail Tanvir due to a dressing room incident before the tournament.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Winners (1st Title) 1 Younis Khan 2 Abdul Razzaq 3 Ahmed Shehzad 4 Fawad Alam 5 Iftikhar Anjum 6 Misbah-ul-Haq 7 Kamran Akmal (wk) 8 Mohammad Amir 9 Saeed Ajmal 10 Salman Butt 11 Shahid Afridi 12 Shahzaib Hasan 13 Shoaib Malik 14 Umar Gul 15 Yasir Arafat 16 Sohail Tanvir Coach: Intikhab Alam Shoaib Akhtar and Yasir Arafat were named in the original squad but injuries led to them being withdrawn. Abdul Razzaq was sent as a replacement for Yasir Arafat.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Semi-Finalists 1 Shahid Afridi (c) 2 Abdul Razzaq 3 Abdur Rehman 4 Fawad Alam 5 Hammad Azam 6 Kamran Akmal (wk) 7 Khalid Latif 8 Misbah-ul-Haq 9 Mohammad Amir 10 Mohammad Asif 11 Mohammad Hafeez 12 Mohammad Sami 13 Saeed Ajmal 14 Salman Butt 15 Umar Akmal Coach: Waqar Younis Umar Gul and Yasir Arafat were named in the original squad but injuries led to them being withdrawn. Abdur Rehman and Mohammad Sami were sent as their replacements.

v t e Pakistan squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 8 Mohammad Hafeez 10 Shahid Afridi (c) 12 Abdul Razzaq 14 Shoaib Akhtar 19 Ahmed Shehzad 22 Misbah-ul-Haq 23 Kamran Akmal (wk) 36 Abdur Rehman 47 Wahab Riaz 50 Saeed Ajmal 55 Umar Gul 75 Younus Khan 81 Asad Shafiq 96 Umar Akmal 99 Junaid Khan Coach: Waqar Younis Sohail Tanvir was named in the original squad but injuries led to him being withdrawn. Junaid Khan was sent as his replacement

This article may contain wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts. Please remove or replace such wording.

Suresh Kumar Raina ( pronunciation (help·info) (born 27 November 1986) is an Indian cricketer from Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. His family comes from a town of Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir,thus the surname "Raina".^[1] Raina has been a member of the Indian cricket team for ODIs since July 2008, and was included in the Test squad in early 2006, but did not make his debut until July 2010. Domestically, he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He is a left-handed batsman and an occasional off spinner.

Personal life[link]

Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from his city Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, UP (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to attend the specialist government Sports College.^[2] He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002, when he was selected at the age of 15 and a half years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches.^[3] He toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16, but did not play another match until the following season. In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls. He was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75.^[4] He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005,^[5] and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka.^[6]

Career[link]

Early international career[link]

Raina bowling in the nets

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed first ball by Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.^[7] After scoring 37 runs in the tournament at an average of 12.33, and with the return of Ganguly from suspension, Raina was omitted from the starting XI for the tour of Zimbabwe. With Ganguly being sacked after a row with Indian coach Greg Chappell and Mohammed Kaif injured, Raina played in five of the matches against Sri Lanka in India, mostly as a supersub, and made a cameo 39 not out to guide the team to victory in the fourth ODI. He was again watching from the sidelines in the series against South Africa after Kaif's return and Gautam Gambhir forced his entry into the team with a century, but got another chance to become a regular member of the Indian middle order during the 2010 tour of Pakistan, after vice-captain Virender Sehwag returned home injured. He was only required to bat in one match, in which he helped guide the latter part of the successful run chase in the fourth ODI.

Upon his return to India, he was called up to the Test squad, at the expense of former captain Ganguly, although he did not play in the Test series against England. He earned his first man of the match award in the subsequent ODI series after scoring an unbeaten 81* in a successful run-chase at Faridabad. After scoring two more half-centuries in the series at an average of 48, Raina was awarded a BCCI C-grade contract.^[8] He was selected for both squads for the tour to the West Indies, but did not make his Test debut.

After a poor run in the Malaysia Tri-Series in September and in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, Raina was relegated to the bench midway through the ODI tour of South Africa. This spread to the Test team, where he was dropped from the squad altogether despite the injury to Yuvraj Singh, with Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik being recalled to the team. In January 2008, Raina was recalled to the team and toured Australia for a limited overs campaign, but did not play in any of India's 10 ODIs or the one-off T20 international.

After a strong IPL season in 2008, Raina broke back into the XI for a triangular ODI tournament in Bangladesh when senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar was rested from the competition.

On 25 June 2008, he scored his maiden hundred against Hong Kong during the 2008 Asia Cup. His 66 balls hundred was at the time, the second fastest century in Indian ODI history.^[9] He scored 84 of 69 against Pakistan and 116 of 107 against Bangladesh, in next two matches. Hence, he won man of the match award successively three times.^[10][11] Since then, Raina has been a member of India's full-strength ODI and T20 team.

2010 World Twenty20[link]

During the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies, Raina was criticised for a perceived weakness against the short ball. With his 101 from 60 balls with five sixes and nine fours in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 against South Africa on 2 May 2010, he became the third player to score a Twenty20 international century after the West Indies' Chris Gayle and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum. He then missed the ODI series in the West Indies because of injury. In January 2010, Raina scored 106 from 115 balls in the final of the triangular ODI tournament against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh. His innings took India to 245 after they collapsed to 5/60, but it was not enough to save the match.

2010 South Africa tour of India[link]

In South Africa's tour of India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test, but was not selected in the playing XI. He captained the Indian team for the Tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe as all the other first-choice players were rested from the tournament. India lost the first match under his captaincy against Zimbabwe by six wickets, but won the next match against Sri Lanka. The Indians then lost their remaining two matches and did not make the final.

2010 tour of Sri Lanka[link]

Raina was then brought into the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August 2010. He made his debut in the Second Test after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/642 declared and India were in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach a century on debut as the pair put on a double century partnership. Yuvraj recovered in time for the Third Test but the selectors opted to retain Raina. However, poor form throughout 2010-2011, including a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to draw 1-1.

2011 Cricket World Cup[link]

He was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which he started due to an injury to Virender Sehwag. He started against defending champions Australia in the quarter-finals as Dhoni made a strategic change, omitting Yusuf Pathan in favour of Raina. Raina responded by assisting Yuvraj Singh in a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India to victory. In the semi-final against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders and scored unbeaten 36 runs without which India would have been hard pressed to bowl Pakistan out, as they ultimately did. He also fielded well in this game, taking the catch which completed Younis Khan's dismissal of Yuvraj's over.^[12] He took another catch in the final against Sri Lanka, and did not have to bat.

2011 tour of the West Indies[link]

After the World Cup Raina took over as captain of the ODI side for the tour of the West Indies after Dhoni opted to rest and Gambhir was injured. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.

2011 tour of England[link]

He was selected for the England tour in July. There was a lot of debate whether who should play in first test at Lord's, Yuvraj or Raina. But a century in a practice match against Somerset sealed a place for him in the playing eleven. Aside from a half-century in the first Test at Lord's, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against short bowling and in the final Test was out for a 29-ball duck, the longest in India's Test history.^[13][14]

Raina running through a poor form in the Test series especially in the last match made some impact in the 5 match-ODI series though the team was unable to secure a win at all.He top-scored in a rain-affected game at the Lord's scoring a commendable 84 from 111 balls.In the first One Day International he scored 88, but fell to steven Finn.

Indian Premier League[link]

Suresh Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for $650,000 for the first three years of the tournament.

Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of key players in Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. He played a vital MOTM performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals. Ultimately the Super Kings finished as the runners-up of the league with Raina with 421 scoring the most runs for them.

Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00.He made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls (losing his century due to scoring errors) against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion.He was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden.Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.

Again in 2010 IPL, Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament.He also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. He scored 520 runs in all, making him the third highest-run getter of the series and the first for Chennai. He also was awarded the "best fielder award" by the BCCI ahead of the finals.^[15] He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.

At the end of the season,Raina set the record for scoring the most no. of runs in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still to be broken.^[16] Raina also had hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. He was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper Dhoni.

In the 2011 IPL too, Suresh Raina maintained his reputation as the leading run-scorer with 438 runs, again being the only player to cross 400 do so for all the four seasons.His most crucial knock came against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier where he played a stunning innings to get the game back to Chennai's favor.

Achievements[link]

Test Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	120	228	12	2	Sri Lanka	Colombo	2 July 2010	Won

ODI Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	101	68	7	5	Hong Kong	Karachi	25 June 2008	Won
2	116*	107	11	3	Bangladesh	Karachi	28 June 2008	Won
3	106	115	10	1	Sri Lanka	Dhaka	13 Jan 2010	Lost

T20I Centuries[link]

Num	Score	Balls	4s	6s	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	101	60	9	5	South Africa	Gros Islet	2 May 2010	Won

References[link]