A fantastic matchwinner

What the numbers say about Inzamam-ul-Haq

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.

Inzamam-ul-Haq Pakistan Pakistan tour of India