Zaheer Khan

Not to be confused with Zaheer Abbas.

Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan at a promotional event in January 2013.
Personal information
Born	(1978-10-07) 7 October 1978 Shrirampur, Maharashtra, India
Nickname	Zak, Zippy Zakky
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Left-arm fast medium
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 231)	10 November 2000 v Bangladesh
Last Test	5 December 2012 v pakistan
ODI debut (cap 133)	3 October 2000 v Kenya
Last ODI	4 August 2012 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.	34
T20I debut (cap 1)	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I	2 October 2012 v Pakistan
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1999/00–2005/06	Baroda
2004	Surrey
2006	Worcestershire
2006/07	Mumbai
2011–present	Bangalore Royal Challengers
2008–2010	Mumbai Indians
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 88 200 158 253 Runs scored 1,146 792 2,250 1047 Batting average 11.81 12.00 13.39 12.17 100s/50s 0/3 0/0 0/4 0/0 Top score 75 34* 75 43 Balls bowled 17,612 10,097 31,939 12,745 Wickets 295 282 630 357 Bowling average 32.35 29.43 27.78 29.07 5 wickets in innings 10 1 33 1 10 wickets in match 1 0 8 0 Best bowling 7/87 5/42 9/138 5/42 Catches/stumpings 19/– 43/– 45/– 57/–
Source: ESPNCricinfo, 29 December 2012

Zaheer Khan  pronunciation  (born 7 October 1978) is an Indian cricketer who has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000. A left-arm fast bowler, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways. Zaheer can also use reverse swing. He was the key member of 2011 world cup winning team, leading the attack with 21 wickets in just 9 games. He is regarded as the best fast bowler emerged from India after Kapil Dev, and considered as the best left hand fast bowler in the world only after Wasim Akram. He is more destructive against the left handers and has troubled the best left hand batsmen like Greame Smith, Mathew Hayden, Andrew Strauss, Kumar Sangakkara, Cook and Hussey.

Career

Zaheer was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He made his Test debut against Bangladesh and ODI debut against Kenya during the ICC KnockOut Trophy 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 India demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year. He returned for the 2005 tour of Pakistan, where India fielded three left arm pacemen and had difficulty dismissing Pakistan with a lack of variety in the bowling attack.

In Indian domestic cricket, Zaheer made his name playing for Baroda. In the 2000/01 Ranji Trophy final against Railways, 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 Mumbai at the start of the 2006-07 Indian cricket season his debut for Mumbai until the final of the Ranji Trophy in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeated Bengal.

In 2006 Zaheer signed for Worcestershire County Cricket Club in England as one of their two overseas players, replacing Shoaib Akhtar. Although Worcestershire went on to lose the match, Zaheer took ten wickets against 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 Essex, ending with 9–138; had wicket-keeper Steven Davies not dropped a catch offered by last man Darren Gough 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 Pathan's slump in form and an injury to Munaf Patel. 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 Cup.

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.

ODI career

He has taken 282 ODI wickets at an average of just over 29 runs per wicket taking 4 wickets in a match 6 times (4 times against Zimbabwe) including 32 wickets against Zimbabwe at an average of 17.46 runs per dismissal. He, along with other seamers like Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra helped India to make it to the finals of the 2003 World Cup. 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 Cup campaign. He was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, joint with Pakistan's Shahid Afridi on 21. He is 5th in world and leading Indian wicket taker in a world cup along with Javagal Srinath (44 wickets)but Zaheer has achieved this feat in only 23 matches while Srinath has taken 34 mathches.

Test career

Zaheer has taken over 288 Test wickets at an average of just under 32 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, Brisbane, 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 held 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 Tendulkar; the pair amassed 133 runs, a new record for India's tenth-wicket. This record was broken by Tino Best of the West Indies in 2012.

In July 2011 India embarked on a tour of England. 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. Zaheer came back in December and played a test match against Australia on Boxing day. He took two wickets in two consecutive deliveries, dismissing Michael Clarke for 31 and Mike Hussey for a duck. In the second test at Sydney, he took three wickets only the best figure in that innings. Currently Zaheer Khan holds rank number 15 in ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers.

IPL career

Zak, as his team-mates call him, had reinvented himself from several injuries to become the backbone of Indian pace attack being the highest wicket taker for India in 2011 World Cup. Zaheer Khan started his IPL career with RCB before moving to Mumbai Indians for two seasons. After performing brilliantly for Mumbai Indians, RCB bought him back in the next auction.

	Matches	Bowls	Runs	Wickets	BBM	Avg	Econ	SR
Career	62	1382	1783	65	21/3	27.43	7.74	21.26
2008	11	252	357	13	3/38	27.46	8.50	19.38
2009	6	126	142	6	3/31	23.66	6.76	21.00
2010	14	290	376	15	3/21	25.06	7.77	19.33
2011	15	354	455	14	3/32	32.50	7.71	25.28
2012	16	360	453	17	3/38	27.64	8.50	19.38

External links

• Player profile: Zaheer Khan from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Zaheer Khan from CricketArchive
• Zaheer Khan IPL Profile from RoyalChallengers
• Zaheer Khan on Twitter