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What the numbers say about Inzamam-ul-Haq

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
24-Mar-2005


Inzamam-ul-Haq: one of the best for Pakistan © Getty Images
  • Inzamam-ul-Haq played his first Test innings as a 22-year-old, in England in 1992. Though he'd made his mark in the World Cup earlier that year, in his first Test series, he did little to suggest that 13 years later, he'd be recognised as one of the finest batsmen ever to play for Pakistan - the scores in his first series were 8*, 0, 8, 26, 5, 19. Inzamam, however, had Imran Khan's backing, and that faith was soon justified - his first half-century came in his next series, in New Zealand, and four innings after that, in the West Indies, Inzamam made 123, the first of his 20 centuries. The Bangalore Test will be Inzamam's 100th, a feat achieved by 30 others, but only by three other Pakistanis - Javed Miandad, (124), Wasim Akram (104) and Saleem Malik (103). (Click here for Inzamam's career summary.)
  • Inzamam is easily among the most successful batsmen for Pakistan. Only Javed Miandad has scored more runs and has a better average. (Click here for Pakistan's leading Test batsmen in terms of average.)
  • Of the 20 hundreds he's scored, 15 of them have led to Pakistani victories. It's an unusually high percentage, and among batsmen with at least 15 centuries, it's been bettered only by Don Bradman and Steve Waugh, while Matthew Hayden and Mark Waugh share the same percentage. In fact, in the top ten, Inzamam and Gordon Greenidge are the only non-Australians.
  • 100s in wins Total 100s Percentage
    Bradman 23 29 79.31
    Steve Waugh 25 32 78.13
    Inzamam 15 20 75.00
    Hayden 15 20 75.00
    Mark Waugh 15 20 75.00
  • Not surprisingly, Inzamam averages 76.51 in victories, which is fourth-highest among batsmen who have been part of at least 20 wins. And when Pakistan win by an innings, Inzamam's average of 202 is on top of the heap (min. qual: five such wins).
  • In victories Tests won Runs Average
    Bradman 30 4813 130.08
    Dravid 28 2926 79.08
    Sobers 31 3097 77.42
    Inzamam 41 3902 76.51
    Greg Chappell 38 3595 70.49
    In innings wins Tests won Runs Average
    Inzamam 12 1419 202.71
    Sobers 11 1345 168.12
    Bradman 14 2003 166.92
    Samaraweera 7 423 141.00
    Gower 7 739 123.17
  • As the table below shows, Inzamam has also been almost constantly improving his stats. After ten Tests, his numbers were rather modest, but gradually he has pushed up those numbers now to rather imposing levels.
  • Runs Average 100s
    After 10 Tests 466 31.06 1
    After 20 Tests 1174 43.48 3
    After 30 Tests 2047 45.48 4
    After 40 Tests 2656 45.01 5
    After 50 Tests 3139 43.59 6
    After 60 Tests 3848 43.23 8
    After 70 Tests 4807 46.22 12
    After 80 Tests 5600 47.05 15
    After 90 Tests 6574 49.42 18
    After 99 Tests 7238 48.90 20
  • As a captain, Inzamam averages 41, which is a fair average, but is almost nine runs less than the corresponding number when he isn't leading the side. The difference is the highest among all captains for Pakistan. These are early days on the job for him, though - he has only done it 12 times - and it's quite likely that the average will climb up by the time he is done.
  • Batsmen captains Ave as captain Ave as batsman Difference
    Inzamam 41.15 50.12 -8.97
    Mushtaq Mohammad 33.39 42.06 -8.68
    Miandad 50.09 53.54 -3.45
    Zaheer 45.47 44.68 0.79
    Malik 52.35 42.15 10.20
    S Rajesh is assistant editor of Cricinfo.