Mohammad Azharuddin was born on 8^th February, 1963 in the great city of Hyderabad. He studied at All Saints High School and led the School to championship. This High School has given cricketers like Syed Abid Ali, Syed Mujtaba Hussain Kirmani, Venkatapathy Raju and Noel David to India.

Mohammad Azharuddin, from his young days, was an elegant batsman and an extraordinary fielder. In his later days, he was compared by many to David Gower of England. He was a right hand bat and a right hand medium pace bowler. He is popularly known to his team mates as ‘Azhar’.

Mohammad Azharuddin made his test debut on 31^st December 1984 against England at Calcutta. He created history in this year by knocking off three centuries in his first three test matches during this series. He holds the record even today of making three consecutive centuries on debut. Even the great Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar could not manage this feat. He played his last test match on 2^nd March 2000 against South Africa at Bangalore.

Mohammad Azharuddin captained India in 169 tests. He made his one day debut on 20^th January 1985 against England at Bangalore and played his last one day match against Pakistan at Dhaka on 3^rd June 2000. He has played in the Ranji Trophy for Hyderabad from 1981 to 2000. He has also played for Derbyshire County between 1991 and 1994.  He played 99 tests, scoring 6,215 runs with 22 centuries and 21 fifties. He had a high score of 199 against Sri Lanka. He took 105 catches. He played 334 one day matches, scoring 9,378 runs with 7 centuries and 58 fifties and a top score of 153 not out. He has taken 12 wickets and 156 catches. Overall, he played 662 first class matches, scoring 28,796 runs with 65 centuries and 159 fifties. He had a top score of 226. He took 32 wickets and 420 catches.

Much has been said about his batting skills, but it has to be acknowledged that he is probably India’s best fielder of all time after Eknath Dhondu Solkar followed by Syed Abid Ali. I met him personally in 1994 and when I shook hands with him, I could feel the ruggedness of his right palm which could have been the result of taking the brunt of a hard cricket ball many times in his career. Statistically, he is one of India’s most successful captains, but I give the top slot to Ajit Wadekar.

Mohammad Azharuddin has won a record 103 one day matches as the captain of the Indian team. This record stands intact even today. His fourteen test match wins record as Captain was broken recently by Sourav Ganguly.

As a Captain, a major criticism that has been leveled against him was that he did not mingle with the other players in the side and thus was not able to motivate the team sufficiently to bring out their best. An extraordinary sparkling career came to an ignominious and abrupt end in 2000 when he was punished for his involvement in match fixing and was banned for life. Though this ban was lifted in 2006, it had done its damage to his career. He is one of the unfortunate ones to be singled out by late Hansie Cronje of South Africa. There are high and mighty names in the Indian team, present and past, who go away unnoticed as there is no one to point a finger at them and the selected few are pushed forward as scapegoats.

Mohammad Azharuddin was named Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year in 1991. His wrist work, as a batsman, with his leg side flick off the bat was unique. He was always at ease against all pace bowlers and spinners. Whenever his contribution with the bat used to be slim, he cashed in with his extraordinarily athletic fielding by taking a brilliant catch or affecting an almost impossible run out. He was the most agile fielder despite being the oldest member in the side. 

Article Posted By : tahnak  On June 30, 2011lView All Articles

Tahnak Tahseen Nakavi Juror

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Mohammad Azharuddin , Cricket