Pakistani Crickete Players: Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal Biography

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Saeed Ajmal is one of the late bloomers who has developed into one of the most pivotal spin bowlers for Pakistan during the last couple of years. Armed with a mesmerizing doosra and a big heart, Ajmal is one of the best spinners in the country and has shown his mettle on the international stage as well.

He made his debut in the Asia Cup of 2008 against India and he impressed with the amount of spin that he generated. It was in the T20 format of the game where Ajmal showed his class. He demonstrated it during the 2009 T20 WC in England. Bamboozling the batsmen with his off-spin and doosra, he finished the tournament as the joint second highest wicket taker with 12 wickets. His exploits, along with Shahid Afridi's all-round brilliance helped Pakistan win the trophy.

His excellent showing in the T20 WC earned him a spot in the Test squad for the tour to Sri Lanka. He excelled immediately by picking up 14 wickets in three matches. He had an excellent time in the Champions Trophy in South Africa and continued with his excellent showing in the ODI series against New Zealand at Abu Dhabi.

In 2009, the ICC called him for suspect action, but he was soon cleared from it and he continued to trouble the batsmen, with his bagful of tricks.

He continued to excel in the shorter format of the game. He picked up 4/26 to knock South Africa out of the competition in the 2010 T20 WC. However, the semi-final against Australia was a nightmarish experience. Michael Hussey stamped his authority and clouted him for three sixes in the final over bowled by him to win a cliff-hanger. Ajmal was heart-broken but moved on and continued to be consistent.

In Tests, he picked up his first five wicket haul against England at Birmingham in 2010 when he picked up 5/82. He contributed with the bat by scoring a fifty that was punctuated by the ball hitting more of his body than the bat. He had a good ODI series which followed but was surprisingly picked for only three matches in the 2011 World Cup. He made the West Indies clueless in the quarter-final and in the semi-final troubled Sachin Tendulkar to a great extent without any luck. Ajmal has grown from strength to strength and had an outstanding Test series in the West Indies. In the two match series, he picked up 20 wickets, including his first ever 10 wicket haul at Guyana.

He ripped through the England strong batting order in 2012, which Pakistan won 3-0 by taking 24 wickets in 3 games at an average of 14.70. Ajmal was signed by Adelaide Strikers for the 2012 Big Bash League in Australia. He continued his golden run with the ball and was one of the leading wicket takers in ODIs in 2013. Ajmal had a fantastic start to 2014 as he picked up 11 wickets in the Asia Cup, including three crucial ones in the final against Sri Lanka but ended up on the losing side. Ajmal had a mixed 2014 T20 WC, he picked up 4 wickets in 4 games but was expensive in the crucial match against West Indies. In the end, Pakistan lost that game and failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

With his unreadable doosra and variations in flight, Ajmal is currently one of the most feared spinners of his time.

Saeed Ajmal

Saeed Ajmal Biography

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Saeed Ajmal is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who also uses the Doosra to good effect.

Early life and domestic cricket

Ajmal has played for Faisalabad since his debut in 1995 at the age of 18, also representing Khan Research Laboratories and occasionally Islamabad. After a successful season in 2007–08 for Khan Research Laboratories, he was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2008 Asia Cup.

In a domestic match Faisalabad vs Rawalpindi , the Pindi coach told ajmal that camera footages could be sent to board . Thus Saeed did not bowl any doosra , as Pindi hampered to a win.

International career

He made his debut against India, taking the wicket of Yusuf Pathan in an eight-wicket before taking two wickets in a ten-wicket victory over Bangladesh, although the team had no chance of progressing to the competition's final.

From there he has had a rapid rise in the team in just over a full year. He had an excellent time at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, bowling at an economical rate and regularly taking wickets along with his spin partner 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.

In 2009, University of Western Australia test indicated that his arm is 8.5° tilted due to accident and 23.5° bowling action is allowed for him. Saeed Ajmal also said in an interview that he had learned the doosra on his own and that the rated Saqlain Mushtaq as the best off-spinner ever and rated Muttiah Muralitharan in second-place. He also stated that Muralitharan was a very nice and down to earth person. Ajmal said that he planned to introduce a new delivery at the 2011 Cricket World Cup

SAEED AJMAL