Pakistani Cricket Players

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting Biography
Ponting is the eldest of three children; he was born and raised in Launceston, Tasmania by parents Graeme and Lorraine. Ricky started playing cricket at age 7, and showed immediate promise. He was known to be rich in talent ever since he was 12 when he became the youngest person in the world to have a bat sponsor as he was signed by Kookaburra. Obviously people knew that in the future he would be a star. Ponting excelled in junior levels as he was already playing 1st/A Grade cricket when he was 12 and had made it into Youth State and National sides with ease.

He attended school at Mowbray Primary and then Brooks Senior High School in Launceston, and then attended the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy from 1992 to 1993.

Ponting reached international standards at a young age for a batsman, making his One Day International debut in early 1995 and making his Test debut at the end of the year aged 20. However, his progress was not unhindered. He lost his place in the team several times due to lack of form and discipline issues, before rising to the ODI captaincy in early 2002 and becoming Test captain in early 2004. As of March 2008, he is the second highest ranked ODI batsman and ranked third amongst Test batsman in the ICC ratings.

Ponting is considered one of the best cricketers in modern cricket, and is ranked 2nd in the One-Day International Batting chart. He has scored over 9,500 Test runs at an average near 60, but since the February 2002 tour of South Africa (when he was elevated to the ODI team captaincy) he has scored 24 of his Test centuries and averaged above 74, leading to comparisons with Sir Donald Bradman.

Ponting is also Australia's leading ODI run-scorer and century maker he has the second most centuries ever, behind only Tendulkar. His century against the West Indies in Jaipur at the 1996 Cricket World Cup made him the youngest ever World Cup centurion, and his unbeaten 140 against India in the 2003 Cricket World Cup final was the highest by a captain in a World Cup final. In 2007 Cricket World Cup match against South Africa at St Kitts, Ponting became the first Australian to reach 10,000 runs in ODI Cricket and the 7th in world cricket to achieve this distinction.

Like many Australian batsmen, Ricky Ponting is particularly strong against pace bowling, with the full array of back foot shots, including the pull, hook, and square cut. Early on, he was regarded as a near-compulsive hooker, but he has lately moderated this tendency. He tends to move across his off stump, and has therefore been regarded as vulnerable to LBW early in his innings. He is less adept against spin bowling, particularly on very helpful spinning pitches such as those in India where his average is just 12.28.

After his first 30 Tests in just under four years his average was 38.62, and after rising into the mid-40s had dipped again to 40.50 after 45 Tests. Since that time his average has consistently risen; his averages in recent calendar years are 70.93 in 2002, 100.20 in 2003, 41.00 in 2004, 67.13 in 2005 and 88.86 in 2006.

Ponting occasionally bowls medium pace, and has also experimented with off-spin. He is an outstanding fieldsman square of the wicket or at silly point, with fast reactions and hand-eye coordination and (especially in the one-day game) a reputation for hitting the stumps to run out opposition batsmen. A report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the second highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the sixth highest success rate.

Ponting is a keen supporter and number one ticket holder of the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League. On 9 August 2007, Ponting appeared on The AFL Footy Show where he talked about his desire to join the club's board. He also supports Blue Square Premier side Altrincham F.C.after befriending chairman Geoff Goodwin. He owns 500 shares in the club and attended a pre-season friendly in 2009.

After marrying long-time girlfriend—law student Rianna Jennifer Cantor in June 2002, Ponting credited her as the reason for his increased maturity. On 26 February 2008, it was announced that they were expecting their first child. Daughter Emmy Charlotte was born in Sydney, Australia on 26 July 2008

Ricky Ponting

Umar Gul

Umar Gul Biography
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

Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad Biography
Full name Stuart Christopher John Broad

Born June 24, 1986, Nottingham

Major teams England, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire

Nickname Broady

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Height 6 ft 5 in

Education Oakham School

Relation Father - BC Broad

Stuart Christopher John Broad

With his blond hair and baby-faced good looks, Stuart Broad was already looking like becoming the Next Big Thing of English cricket when he pushed his career into overdrive in a sensational spell of bowling in the fifth and decisive Ashes Test at The Oval in 2009. With the series in the balance, Broad claimed figures of 5 for 37 in 12 overs, including 4 for 8 in 21 balls, and after that there was no coming back for Australia.

After a steady rise towards being one of England's key bowlers the 2010-11 winter, which should have been a major moment in his career, was a disappointment as injury struck for the first time. He was ruled out of the last three Ashes Tests then broke down again during the World Cup. However, his significance in England's future was confirmed when he was named Twenty20 captain in May 2011.

In his early cricketing career, Broad had been shaping up to be an opening bat just like his dad Chris, until he suddenly shot up. Within 18 months he had transformed himself into a medium-fast bowler and was playing for England Under-19 and Leicestershire's first XI. A few months later and he's gone from England's A team to a call-up to the full one-day side. Talk about a meteoric rise.

"I thought I may as well try bowling because I can't just stand around in the field all day," he shrugged - and promptly took 9 for 72 for England Under-19s in ODIs against Sri Lanka and 30 first-class wickets at 27.69 in ten matches in 2005.

But those early years as a batsman did not go amiss. After his first eight Tests, he had racked up three half-centuries from the pivotal No. 8 position, and push his Test average above 40 - a mark his father (39.54) just missed out on over the course of his 25-match career.

At the age of just 19, he was called into the England A set-up in the West Indies to replace James Anderson who flew out to bolster the seniors in India and was twice selected for England A during the 2006 season.

His early performances for the one-day team, against Pakistan, were promising but he was left out of the Champions Trophy, but more out of a feeling of not wanting to push him too hard, too soon. He was named in the Academy team to be based in Perth during the Ashes and by the end of the winter he had joined the World Cup squad in the Caribbean.

Injury deprived him of a Test debut in May 2007, but he marked his return to the one-day side with 3 for 20 against West Indies at Lord's, and he was then announced in England's squad for the first Test against India in July. His stock continued to rise on tour with England in Sri Lanka when his 11 cheap wickets helped them to a 3-2 series victory.

He was then called up for the subsequent Test series in December, making his debut on a slab of Colombo concrete and toiling for 36 sweaty overs. The subsequent tour of New Zealand proved to be his making, however. With Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison both lacking form, he was selected for the Wellington Test. The decision was immediately vindicated, if not with a huge match-haul then certainly by the composure and control he showed.

The following Test in Napier, however, demonstrated his immense allround talent. A vital 42 helped prop up England's first innings before he took 3 for 54, testing all New Zealand's batsmen with pace and bounce. A diving catch at backward square leg confirmed, if there were any doubts, that England had found themselves a Test cricketer of rare class and even rarer composure.

That impression continued to climb during England's home season in 2008 when no less a technical purist as Geoffrey Boycott likened his tall elegant batting style to Sir Garfield Sobers. Although he has struggled at times for consistency with his bowling, his unmistakable talent was out on show again against South Africa in Durban in 2009 as helped bowl England to a famous innings victory.

Stuart Broad

Imran Nazeer

Imran Nazeer Biography
Imran Nazir an other gift of Allah for the Pakistan in the cricket player’s team. But the distrust was that as he offers more genuine promise than most. He is predominantly strong off the back foot, loves forcing all the way through the covers. His hostile behavior towards his cricket passion has had him made as a one-day player. In the initial period of his entrance he couldn’t perform well in his first few Tests.
Ultimately, on the other hand, Glenn McGrath and Co noticed his method and deficient of footwork rather cruelly in two Tests matches against Australia. The preference of Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar moved him upward level, which enhance his career charm and He became National squad against South Africa in 2006-07 because of the consistency in performances in in-land matches. And he was selected for World Cup 2007 team on his volatile performance 39-ball 57-scores, but his three failure match series won’t polish his performance and become a slight decline of his image in the Pakistani people. Over all his performance made him one of the best fielders in the Pakistan cricket team, so he is considered as to be the 1st Pakistani to flip-flop (while intercepting a square cut).
His career-best performance of 160 adjacent to Zimbabwe in the World Cup retained him for the following such tours to Abu Dhabi and Scotland whereas Imran also is being elected for Pakistani cricket training camps. Then he was selected in Twenty20 World Championship and rewarded by a “Central Contract” in July 2007 before representing Pakistan in the home ODI series in opposition to South Africa. Later-on he coupled with the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League and performed very well for the Lahore Badshahs, but when the PCB pardoned players to have severed ties with the ICL, Imran Nazir was soon called back into the ODI side.

Imran Nazeer

Shoaib Malik

Shoaib Malik Biography
Shoaib Malik (born 1 February 1982 in Sialkot) is the current captain of the Pakistani cricket team. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in 1999 against the West Indies and his Test debut in 2001 against Bangladesh.
Short of wicketkeeping, there are few roles that have passed Shoaib Malik by on the cricket field. He has batted in every position in ODIs since his debut in 1999. He began at Test level batting in the lower-order and was even used as an opener, astonishingly, proving himself to be an adept one. As an offspinner in the modern mould, everything about his bowling, from short-stepping run-up to the doosra, bear striking similarities with Saqlain Mushtaq (though not as obviously gifted). And the action isn't clean enough - he has been reported twice at international level - once in October 2004 after which he played primarily as a batsman for the next six months, before undergoing elbow surgery to correct his action. And he was again reported in November 2005, after which he underwent elbow surgery again in early 2006. But it is his intelligence and versatility that mark him out and make him so vital to Pakistan's future. After Bob Woolmer's arrival, he became one of Pakistan's most intelligent ODI batsmen, regularly marshalling chases from one-down, setting up platforms for big totals as a thruster, scoring runs in vital matches and being at the heart of Pakistan's ODI resurgence. He is an uncomplicated batsman, with checked drives and cuts and useful slogs when needed. Against India, both in 2005 and 2006, all these qualities came to the fore. Yet, he can still come in at number six as he did against South Africa in 2003 once and blast 82 from 40 balls. More significantly, he has settled at Test level, scoring a vital, match-saving hundred against Sri Lanka at Colombo. Injuries kept him out of Tests against England and South Africa but as he returned to the ODI side with a World Cup looming, his batting intelligence was again shining through. He was talked in private circles within the PCB, as a future captain before he was given the job after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup ouster in 2007 and duly responded by guiding Pakistan to a series win over World Cup finalists Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi and reaching the final of the ICC World Twenty20. However, that was followed by Test-series defeats against South Africa and India, before presiding over a 12-ODI winning streak, a Pakistan record, albeit against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Against meaningful opposition, the pressure mounted on Malik to produce consistent results and a timely victory in the Kitply Cup final against India finally gave him and his side much-needed credibility. Malik however couldn't repeat match those efforts in the Asia Cup at home as Pakistan failed to reach the summit. His captaincy hit an all-time low when Pakistan suffered their worst ODI defeat at home, to the Sri Lankans, and there was a swift change in the management as Younis Khan took over as captain.

Shoaib Malik