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Full name Mohammad Sami
Born February 24, 1981, Karachi, Sind
Current age 27 years 233 days
Major teams Pakistan,ICL Pakistan XI,Karachi,Kent,Lahore Badshahs,National Bank of Pakistan,Pakistan Customs,Sussex
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
Tests
33
51
13
458
49
12.05
1495
30.63
0
0
50
4
7
0
ODIs
83
46
19
314
46
11.62
490
64.08
0
0
16
10
18
0
First-class
94
127
37
1326
49
14.73
0
0
36
0
List A
117
67
27
474
46
11.85
0
0
24
0
Twenty20
10
5
1
26
8
6.50
25
104.00
0
0
2
1
5
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
33
60
6984
4161
81
5/36
8/106
51.37
3.57
86.2
3
2
0
ODIs
83
81
4094
3357
118
5/10
5/10
28.44
4.91
34.6
3
1
0
First-class
94
17416
10070
317
8/39
31.76
3.46
54.9
16
2
List A
117
5791
4774
169
6/20
6/20
28.24
4.94
34.2
4
2
0
Twenty20
10
10
233
283
7
2/14
2/14
40.42
7.28
33.2
0
0
0
Career statistics
Test debut
New Zealand v Pakistan at Auckland, Mar 8-12, 2001 scorecard
Last Test
India v Pakistan at Bangalore, Dec 8-12, 2007 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut
Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Sharjah, Apr 8, 2001 scorecard
Last ODI
Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Abu Dhabi, May 20, 2007 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class debut
1999/00
Last First-class
Sussex v Yorkshire at Hove, Sep 24-27, 2008 scorecard
List A debut
1999/00
Last List A
Nottinghamshire v Sussex at Nottingham, Sep 14, 2008 scorecard
Twenty20 debut
Kent v Surrey at Canterbury, Jun 23, 2003 scorecard
Last Twenty20
Karachi Dolphins v Sialkot Stallions at Karachi, Dec 26, 2006 scorecard
Profile
One of a new generation of Pakistan fast bowlers, Mohammad Sami initially forced his way into the Test team with outstanding performances in domestic cricket and had an immediate impact in his first Test with five wickets against New Zealand. Then, in only his third Test, he notched a hat-trick, eking out the last three Sri Lankans in the Asian Test Championship final and he also has an ODI hat-trick. But since those early years, and especially after the World Cup 2003, when he was expected to become the Pakistan spearhead after the retirements of Wasim and Waqar, his story has been a fitful and thus far disappointing one.
Series after series has seen him disappoint as a stream of promising paceman have overtaken him, including the likes of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. Occasionally when the mood takes him, he can be threatening, as he was for some of the India series in 2005, especially at Kolkata and the occasional ODI. For the most part he has been surprisingly ineffective and prone to leaking runs. So poor was his form after the India series in early 2006, he was finally dropped from the tour to Sri Lanka was lucky to be selected for the tour to England that summer, after a number of Pakistan's frontline bowlers were injured.
Nobody seems to be entirely sure where the problem lies either - he has been given the new-ball with license to attack, he has come on as first-change. He is fit - one of the fittest in the team - and athletic. From a shortish run-up and high action he generates surprising pace, settled in the mid-to-late eighties but with occasional forays into the nineties. He also quickly mastered traditional outswing and reverse-swing and bowls a mean yorker. Some say it is a confidence thing but a bowling average of nearly 50 after 26 Tests (and a strike rate of over 80) means that opportunities might be limited when other pacemen are fit again. It would have been an unthinkable thought when he took eight wickets on his Test debut. He put his future with Pakistan at risk by signing up for the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL).
Cricinfo Staff February 2008
