A fantastic matchwinner

by csb10.top Uncategorized

Inzamam-ul-Haq: one of the best for Pakistan© Getty Images
  • Inzamam-ul-Haq played his first Test innings as a 22-year-old, in England in 1992. Though he’d made his mark in the World Cup earlier that year, in his first Test series, he did little to suggest that 13 years later, he’d be recognised as one of the finest batsmen ever to play for Pakistan – the scores in his first series were 8*, 0, 8, 26, 5, 19. Inzamam, however, had Imran Khan’s backing, and that faith was soon justified – his first half-century came in his next series, in New Zealand, and four innings after that, in the West Indies, Inzamam made 123, the first of his 20 centuries. The Bangalore Test will be Inzamam’s 100th, a feat achieved by 30 others, but only by three other Pakistanis – Javed Miandad, (124), Wasim Akram (104) and Saleem Malik (103). (Click here for Inzamam’s career summary.)
  • Inzamam is easily among the most successful batsmen for Pakistan. Only Javed Miandad has scored more runs and has a better average. (Click here for Pakistan’s leading Test batsmen in terms of average.)
  • Of the 20 hundreds he’s scored, 15 of them have led to Pakistani victories. It’s an unusually high percentage, and among batsmen with at least 15 centuries, it’s been bettered only by Don Bradman and Steve Waugh, while Matthew Hayden and Mark Waugh share the same percentage. In fact, in the top ten, Inzamam and Gordon Greenidge are the only non-Australians.
    100s in winsTotal 100sPercentage
    Bradman232979.31
    Steve Waugh253278.13
    Inzamam152075.00
    Hayden152075.00
    Mark Waugh152075.00
  • Not surprisingly, Inzamam averages 76.51 in victories, which is fourth-highest among batsmen who have been part of at least 20 wins. And when Pakistan win by an innings, Inzamam’s average of 202 is on top of the heap (min. qual: five such wins).
    In victoriesTests wonRunsAverage
    Bradman304813130.08
    Dravid28292679.08
    Sobers31309777.42
    Inzamam41390276.51
    Greg Chappell38359570.49
    In innings winsTests wonRunsAverage
    Inzamam121419202.71
    Sobers111345168.12
    Bradman142003166.92
    Samaraweera7423141.00
    Gower7739123.17
  • As the table below shows, Inzamam has also been almost constantly improving his stats. After ten Tests, his numbers were rather modest, but gradually he has pushed up those numbers now to rather imposing levels.
    RunsAverage100s
    After 10 Tests46631.061
    After 20 Tests117443.483
    After 30 Tests204745.484
    After 40 Tests265645.015
    After 50 Tests313943.596
    After 60 Tests384843.238
    After 70 Tests480746.2212
    After 80 Tests560047.0515
    After 90 Tests657449.4218
    After 99 Tests723848.9020
  • As a captain, Inzamam averages 41, which is a fair average, but is almost nine runs less than the corresponding number when he isn’t leading the side. The difference is the highest among all captains for Pakistan. These are early days on the job for him, though – he has only done it 12 times – and it’s quite likely that the average will climb up by the time he is done.
    Batsmen captainsAve as captainAve as batsmanDifference
    Inzamam41.1550.12-8.97
    Mushtaq Mohammad33.3942.06-8.68
    Miandad50.0953.54-3.45
    Zaheer45.4744.680.79
    Malik52.3542.1510.20