Imran Nazir is a Pakistani batsman in cricket who represents the Pakistan national cricket team
in Test cricket,
One Day International and Twenty20
cricket. Nazir made his debut in Test cricket
on March 1999, against Sri Lanka at Lahore in
Pakistan and a few days later, he made his One Day International debut against the
same opposition at Visakhapatnam in India. He played in 8 Test
matches between 1999–2002 and secured a spot in the Pakistan squad since 2002.
He also played in One Day International arena, but he could never cement his
place in the squad. The emergence of several Pakistan opening batsmen such as Mohammad
Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Taufeeq Umar
and Salman Butt
kept him out of the national side. However he displayed excellent cricketing
performances in First class cricket.
Nazir made his return to the national team in the
second One Day International against South Africa in February 2007 during Pakistan's
tour of South Africa. He impressed the Pakistan national selectors
with his innings of 57 runs from just 39 deliveries, though he struggled to
score runs during the rest of the tournament. Nazir was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2007 World Cup.
He scored 160 runs against Zimbabwe in Pakistan's
last match during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, after being
knocked out by Ireland.
Eventually, however,
his technique and lack of footwork was found out rather cruelly by Glenn
McGrath and Co in two Tests against Australia. Imran was then upstaged by the
likes of Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar, but a
series of consistent domestic performances saw him recalled to the national
squad against South Africa in 2006-07. A typically explosive 39-ball 57 saw him
get selected for the 2007 World Cup squad though three failures in that series
took the gloss off a touch. He is one of the best fielders in Pakistan, though,
and is supposed to be the first Pakistani to cartwheel (while intercepting a
square cut) . A career-best 160 against Zimbabwe in the World Cup saw Nazir
being retained for the following tours to Abu Dhabi and Scotland while also
being selected for training camps held in Pakistan. Nazir was also named in the
squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship and was awarded a central
contract in July 2007 before representing Pakistan in the home ODI series
against South Africa. He later joined the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League
and did very well for the Lahore Badshahs, but when the PCB pardoned players to
have severed ties with the ICL, Nazir was soon called back into the ODI side.
It was the second highest score by a Pakistani batsman
and the eighth highest score by any batsman in World Cup history and his 8
sixes equaled the World Cup record of Australian batsman, Ricky Ponting.
It was also the highest runs he scored in List A
cricket. He now remains a regular member of Pakistan's Twenty20
squads. In 2008, Nazir signed for the Indian Cricket League and played for the Lahore Bad
shahs. He scored 111 runs not out, off just 44 deliveries, against
the Hyderabad Heroes in the third of the best of
three finals of the tournament and helped his team to victory. After signing up
for the Indian Cricket League, his chances of ever playing again for Pakistan
looked slim. However, on 2 February 2009, a Pakistani court suspended the ban
on Indian Cricket League players, which paved the way for Nazir to make a
return to the One Day International and Twenty20 squad during their tour of Sri
Lanka in August 2009. He was given another chance against New Zealand two
T20I's held in Dubai which Pakistan won 2-0. Next time, he was given a chance
against Australia in only T20I in Australia but could not bat much. He showed
the same form against England in February 2010 in two T2OI's and was
consequently dropped from the Pakistani side. Since then, he has played two
National T20 cups. He was selected for the Hong Kong Sixes tournament 2010 in
Hong Kong as a member of Pakistani squad. There again, he showed very bad form
but worst of all, in the final which was inevitably in Pakistan's favor was
lost due Imran Nazir's bowling. 46 was required from the last 8-ball over but
Imran Nazir gave away 48 runs in 7 balls.
In Twenty20 games he has a bowling
average of 1.00 and in his 8 deliveries he has 3 wickets
a strike rate
of less than 3. He has also played for Dhaka
Dynamites in Bangladesh's NCL T20
Bangladesh. He is currently playing for Dhaka
Gladiators in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). He has
played 7 matches in BPL and has scored 207 runs with an average
of 41.4 runs per game. He has a Strike Rate
of 150. His highest score is 58 and he has scored 2 Half Centuries in this
tournament and has hit 21 4s and 9 6s. Nazir
was recalled to the Pakistan team in September 2012 for the Twenty20 series
versus Australia and the following ICC World Twenty20 to be held in Sri Lanka.
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