Famous Pakistani Cricketer – Azhar Ali
After their dismal performance at the World Cup earlier this year, Pakistani ODI team went through a complete overhauling and in the process got a new captain Azhar Ali. Azhar Ali’s appointment as a captain came as a surprise to many as Azhar was not a part of the World Cup squad; in fact he was not on the Pakistan international cricket scene for the last two years. His appointment was largely criticized and considered as one of PCB’s big blunder; however Azhar Ali silenced all his critics with his powerful performance and intelligent captaincy.
Azhar Ali began his international career against Australia in 2010 from a test match played at Lords. Pakistan lost the match but in the second test match against Australia, Azhar’s heroic half century helped Pakistan to level the score. He was also impressive with the bat in the test series against South Africa later that year and played a pivotal role in preventing sure defeat leading both matches to a draw. Because of his fine performance (he had scored five half centuries), Azhar Ali was also included in the Pakistani squad that was to tour New Zealand in 2011. He again gave a good performance scoring yet another half century making it his sixth. The 2012 tour of Sri Lanka was a good one for Azhar as he gave a brilliant performance in both formats ODI and test match. Azhar was the highest scorer for Pakistan in the ODI and made consecutive centuries in the second test against Sri Lanka.
As a captain, Azhar first led the Pakistani team to Bangladesh where unfortunately the team lost all three ODI matches to the host. But he got a chance to redeem himself as under his captaincy Pakistan won the ODI series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Azhar played the captain’s knock against Sri Lanka as he scored most of the runs and helped Pakistan emerge victorious in Sri Lanka after nine years. During the course he also became the first Pakistani batsman and the first Asian to score a thousand runs from just twenty three matches. Azhar Ali also holds the record of scoring the most runs (611) as a captain after ten ODIs.
Azhar has won the respect of the nation and cricket lovers all over the world with his impressive batting. His team mates are also full of praise for him as he seems to bring out the best in them.
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