Ijaz Ahmed (cricketer)

Ijaz Ahmed (Urdu: اعجاز احمد) (born 20 September 1968 in Sialkot) was a Pakistani criketer who played 60 Tests and 250 One Day Internationals for Pakistan over a period from 1986 to 2001. He is married to the sister of his former team mate Saleem Malik.

International career

Ijaz had the lowest batting average of the team, with a Test average of 38 and an ODI average of 32, but he did hit six Test centuries against the world's top-ranked side for much of his career, Australia - which is a record number of centuries by a Pakistani against Australia, shared with Javed Miandad.

However, in Test cricket he had a habit of being dismissed for low scores, as 33 of his 92 innings yielded single-figure scores and 54 of them yielded scores below 20.

Ijaz Ahmed came into the national side at the height of the Imran Khan era, and remained on the fringes for near a decade, despite several good scores, he struggled to find consistency, a trait for which his legendary captain had little patience, though Imran appreciated his hard work and determination per Wasim Akram. Dropped after the 1992 World Cup (true to his overshadowed nature he played in most of the games including the final, with few highlights, many people are unaware of his presence in the team), he worked on his game and came back strongly the following season and established himself at the pivotal "one down" position. He was competent if not spectacular in this role for many years, though he did play a few...
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