Pakistan Cricket Players: Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal Biography

source(google.com.pk)

Saeed Ajmal is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. With his effective doosra and other varieties he is considered to be one of the best spinners in modern world cricket.

At domestic level in Pakistan he has represented Faisalabad, with whom he won the 2005 ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup; Khan Research Laboratories; and Islamabad.

Ajmal made his One Day International debut for Pakistan in July 2008 at the age of 30, and a year later played his first Test. In 2009 he was reported for having a suspect bowling action, but after being cleared he helped Pakistan win the 2009 ICC World Twenty20.

Ajmal played for Worcestershire as an overseas player in English domestic cricket in 2011. Since November 2011, Ajmal has been ranked by the International Cricket Council as the number one bowler in ODIs while Ajmal's ICC current test bowler ranking is number 2.

On 28 January 2012, in his 20th Test, Ajmal became the quickest Pakistani to take 100 test wickets.Saeed Ajmal also holds the record for taking maximum wickets(60) in Twenty20 International cricket.

A right-arm off spinner, Ajmal's stock delivery turns into right-handed batsman but he also frequently uses the doosra which turns the other way, and he generally bowls flatter than most off spinners. The doosra has been an effective tool for Ajmal as batsmen have often failed to pick it.Saeed Ajmal, an offspinner, received a call-up to the Pakistan squad for the Asia Cup at the age of 30 after an impressive domestic season with Khan Research Labs in 2007-08, during which he took 38 wickets in 12 first-class matches at an average of 29 apiece, and 12 wickets in nine list A games. He made an immediate impression with his subtle variations, unafraid to use the doosra. But his career took off with a series of ODI performances that bewildered Australia in Dubai and Abu Dhabi; he gave away few runs and his doosra was nigh-on unreadable. The ICC called him for his action, though it was cleared soon after. The pressure didn't get to him and immediately after, he played a crucial role in Pakistan's drive to the 2009 World Twenty20 title, regularly bottling up the middle overs with Shahid Afridi. He ended the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with an exemplary economy rate as batsmen around the world struggled to pick a big turning doosra or even cope with his changes in flight, pace and angle. Consistent performances in the ODI version have quickly earned him a reputation for choking the runs in the middle overs with clever variations.Shahid Afridi. He was then picked for the Sri Lankan series in Sri Lanka where he had made solid performances in the Test matches, being picked ahead of Danish Kaneria in two of the matches.

Ajmal's good form continued in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 as he was Pakistan's leading wicket taker. However despite his good form he was known for conceding three sixes to Michael Hussey in what has been hailed as the most thrilling Twenty20 match of all time as Australia were in trouble and Ajmal was the unfortunate bowler who bowled that final over.

Shortly after this the Pakistan team began there long tour of England and in the two Test matches played against Australia spinner Danish Kaneria was selected ahead of him. In the 1st Test against England Kaneria was selected ahead of Ajmal as well. However after poor bowling by Kaneria, Ajmal was selected and he took his career best bowling figures of 5/82 Despite Pakistan restricting England the team suffered a top order collapse and Zulqarnain Haider scored 88 and Ajmal also showed that he has the abiltiy to bat when he scored 50 runs these two men helped Pakistan lead a revival after being bowled out for 72 on the first day. Along with Zulqarnain Haider they together continued to frustrate the England and when it was stumps on day three Pakistan had a 112-run lead however Zulqarnain Haider and Ajmal were out on 88 and 50 respectively and so Pakistan were left on the final wicket with Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. During the series against England Pakistan became englufed in a spot fixing scandal after the fourth test and in a later secret interview it was unveiled by alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed that Ajmal, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi were difficult to bribe. He stated that Ajmal was too religious to get involved into fixing.

Skills in the art of spin

“ "With HawkEye coming in, left-arm spinners slide the ball on for lbws. Offspinners get a lot of lbws from round the wicket, so you [batsman] have to work really hard, and a bloke who's got a doosra you have to work extra special hard. ”

—England batsman Kevin Pietersen

Ajmal is known as an excellent spinner of the ball and strong especially against left-handers. He has a well disguised doosra and keeps it as a mystery while he bowls. His technique is noted for causing more spin than speed as that is what Ajmal prefers Which in a sense is similar to Danish Kaneria who likes to bowl slow spin but Kaneria has a different case as when he picks up more speed he tends to loose the spin of the ball. When Pakistan started there tour of England in 2010 former Pakistani off-spinner and the founder of the doosra, Saqlain Mushtaq had a coaching session with Ajmal to advise him on his spin techniques Ajmal's spin technique came in special hand against England in 2010 has he took his first 5-wicket haul to help restrict England. Kevin Pietersen congratulated Ajmal on the amount of spin he achieved. Ajmal though started his international cricket in limited-overs cricket and was one of the early off-spinners to possess the skills of the doosra. A stat shows that out of Ajmal's 38 wickets in Twenty20 cricket 13 of them have been stumped the most for any bowler in the game. Also it was of Ajmal's off-break that Zulqarnain Haider collected his maiden international stumping.

Saeed Ajmal