Zaheer Khan is an
IndianIndian people or Indisians constitute the Asian nation and pan-ethnic group native to India, which forms the south of Asia, containing 17.31% of the world's population. The Indian nationality is in essence made up of regional nationalities, reflecting the rich and complex history of India...
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who has been a member of the
Indian cricket teamThe Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
since 2000. A left arm fast bowler considered as the best of the Indian fast bowling attack, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, and as a batsman also holds the record for the highest Test score by a No. 11. After leading the Indian pace attack for much of the early 2000s, recurring hamstring injuries in 2003 and 2004 forced him out of the team, and after returning for a year, he was dropped again in late 2005. Strong performances on the domestic circuit have seen him recalled to the team as its leading pace bowler. Zaheer can also use reverse swing.
Career
Zaheer was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the
National Cricket AcademyThe National Cricket Academy located in Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore, Karnataka in India, established in 2000 is a cricket facility of the Board of Control for Cricket in India for training young cricketers who are identified as having the potential to represent the Indian cricket team...
in
BangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
. He made his Test debut against Bangladesh and ODI debut against Kenya during the
ICC KnockOut TrophyThe 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in Kenya. New Zealand were crowned champions and cashed the winner's cheque of US$250 000. It was their first win in a major ICC tournament...
in the same year.
In late 2005 pacemen Sreesanth and R. P. Singh made their international debuts and became regular members of the Indian team making it difficult for Zaheer to retain his position in the playing eleven. The
Board of Control for Cricket in IndiaThe Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year. He returned for the 2006 tour of Pakistan, where India fielded three left arm pacemen and had difficulty dismissing Pakistan with a lack of variety in the bowling attack. Zaheer, with inferior results to those of
Irfan PathanIrfan Pathan is an Indian cricketer who made his debut for India in late-2003 and was a core member of the national team until a decline in form set in during 2006, forcing him out of the team...
and Singh, was dropped.
In Indian domestic cricket, Zaheer made his name playing for
BarodaThe Baroda cricket team is a domestic cricket team based in the city of Vadodara. The home ground of the team is the Moti Bagh Stadium on the palace grounds. The team is run by the Baroda Cricket Association. It has been one of the most successful teams in the Ranji Trophy in the new millennium...
. In the 2000/01
Ranji TrophyThe Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
final against
RailwaysThe Railways Cricket Team has been very successful in the Ranji Trophy in recent years, although much of their history has been spent in unsuccessful endeavours to win the tournament.-Competition History:...
, Zaheer was Man of the Match with eight wickets, including a second innings haul of 5/43, in Baroda's narrow 21-run victory. He transferred to
MumbaiThe Mumbai cricket team is a cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. It is the most successful team in the Ranji Trophy, India's top domestic cricket competition, with 39 titles, the most recent being in 2009–10. The team's home ground is the Wankhede Stadium in...
at the start of the 2006-07 Indian cricket season his debut for Mumbai until the final of the
Ranji TrophyThe Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeated
BengalBengal cricket team is considered Eastern India's strongest cricket team, it is the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy and were runners-up twice consecutively in the 2005-06 and the 2006-07 season. Their ranks are occasionally bolstered by the return of Sourav Ganguly to the domestic competition...
.
In 2006 Zaheer signed for
Worcestershire County Cricket ClubWorcestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Worcestershire...
in England as one of their two overseas players, replacing
Shoaib AkhtarShoaib Akhtar is a former Pakistani right arm fast bowler in cricket, who is regarded as the fastest bowler in the history of cricket. He set an official world record by achieving the fastest delivery, when he clocked in at 161.3 km/h in his bowling speed, twice at a cricket match against...
. Although Worcestershire went on to lose the match, Zaheer took ten wickets against
SomersetSomerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
on debut, in doing so he became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets on debut for over 100 years. In June he took the first nine wickets to fall in the first innings against
EssexEssex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
, ending with 9-138; had wicket-keeper
Steven DaviesSteven Michael Davies is an English cricketer, a wicket-keeper-batsman who currently plays for Surrey. A stylish and aggressive left-handed batsman who can open the batting in both first-class and limited-overs cricket...
not dropped a catch offered by last man
Darren GoughDarren Gough is a retired English cricketer and former captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The spearhead of England's bowling attack through much of the 1990s, he is England's highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals with 234, and took 229 wickets in his 58 Test matches, making him...
he would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the county.
Late in 2006, Zaheer was recalled to the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa, following
Irfan PathanIrfan Pathan is an Indian cricketer who made his debut for India in late-2003 and was a core member of the national team until a decline in form set in during 2006, forcing him out of the team...
's slump in form and an injury to
Munaf PatelMunaf Musa Patel Urdu:مناف موسی پٹیل is an Indian cricketer who has also played for the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy and Gujarat, Mumbai cricket team and Maharashtra cricket team....
. After consistent performances on tour, his performance in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, including a career best 5/42, saw him named in the squad for the
2007 World CupThe 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's One Day International format...
.
He won the Man of the Match award in the first Test between India and Australia in the 2008-2009 series in India for his all round performance with the bat and the ball. He became the third Indian, after
Rusi SurtiRusi Framroze Surti is a former Indian cricketer who played in 26 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He was a left arm medium pace and left arm spin bowler, and a lower order batsman...
and
Kapil DevKapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj , better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup...
, to score a half century and take five wickets in an innings in the same match against Australia. He has since become the strike-bowler and a permanent fixture in the Indian team. Zaheer also won the Man of the Match award in the 2009 T20 World Cup match against Ireland for taking 4/19.
ODI career
He has taken 271 ODI wickets at an average of 28.83 runs per wicket taking 4 wickets in a match 6 times (4 times against
ZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) including 32 wickets against Zimbabwe at an average of 17.46 runs per dismissal. He, along with other seamers like
Javagal SrinathJavagal Srinath is a former Indian cricketer. He was a frontline fast bowler for the Indian cricket team until his retirement, being the second Indian pace bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets. One ball that he bowled during the 1996 tour of South Africa measured...
and
Ashish NehraAshish Nehra is an Indian cricketer who has represented India at the international level since 1999.Nehra started playing first-class cricket for his hometown, Delhi, in the 1997/1998 season and made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at Colombo in 1999 and his ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Harare...
helped India to make it to the finals of the
2003 World Cup-Group stage tables and results:The top three teams from each pool qualify for the next stage, carrying forward the points already scored against fellow qualifiers, plus a quarter of the points scored against the teams that failed to qualify.-Pool A:...
. Zaheer finished the tournament as fourth highest wicket-taker ‐ 18 wickets from 11 matches at an average of 20 runs per wicket.
Zaheer was the mainstay of Indian bowling attack during the side's victorious
2011 World CupThe 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. It was Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup...
campaign. He was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, joint with Pakistan's
Shahid AfridiSahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi , popularly known as Shahid Afridi , is a Pakistani cricketer. Between 1996 and 2011, Afridi played 27 Tests, 325 One Day Internationals, and 43 Twenty20 Internationals for the Pakistani national team...
on 21
Test career
Zaheer has taken over 250 Test wickets at an average of just over 33 runs per wicket. In 16 matches from the beginning of the tour of West Indies in April 2002 to the end of the 1st match against Australia in December 2003,
BrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Zaheer took 54 wickets from 16 matches at an average of 30 runs. It all turned downhill after the first Test against Australia in Brisbane in December 2003. Having taken 5 of the top 7 Australian batsmen in the first innings (5 for 95), he injured himself in the second during the opening spell. After missing the second Test he returned for the third, but was injured midway through the match and was forced to return home. The injury kept him from the early 2004 tour of Pakistan, India's first Test series victory in the country.
Zaheer holds the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 when he scored 75 against Bangladesh in 2004. At the time he was batting with
Sachin TendulkarSachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket...
; the pair amassed 133 runs, a new record for India's tenth-wicket.
In July India embarked on a
tour of EnglandThe Indian cricket team toured England from 21 July to 16 September 2011. The test match series of this tour was known as Pataudi Trophy 2011 and the ODI series of the tour was known as NatWest Series 2011. The tour consisted of one Twenty20 International , five One Day Internationals and four...
. Having bowled 13.3 overs, Zaheer strained his hamstring and suffered an ankle injury in the first Test of the four-match series and as a result was ruled out of the rest of the tour.
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