Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq today retire from international cricket after his country’s second Test against South Africa.

Inzamam said:

"It was a difficult decision to make, but the youngsters are playing well and I have decided it’s better to leave.

          

Inzamam, 37, who retired from one-day internationals after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage earlier this year, needs just another 20 runs to break Javed Miandad’s Pakistan record of 8,832 in Tests. He made 14 in first innings and 3 in second innings, fall

ing short just by 3 runs.

          

Inzamam-ul-Haq is a symbol of strength and feather touch strokeplay. A very powerful hitter, but sublime touch is remarkable for a man of his size. He often looks a passenger in the field, but with a Bat in his hands he is suddenly looks a changed man. He plays shots all round the wicket, is especially strong off his legs, and play powerful pulls and lofted drives. Imran Khan rates him the best batsman in the world against pace.

He uses his feet well to the spinners, although this aggression can be his undoing. Inzi keeps a cool head in a crisis and has succeeded Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s premier batsman, but his hapless running between wickets is legendary and most dangerous for his partners. There were no such problems against New Zealand at a boiling Lahore in 2001-02, when Inzamam belted 329, the second-highest Test score by a Pakistani and the tenth-highest by anyone.

He was dropped from the team briefly, but then roared back to form, scoring a magnificent unbeaten 138 and guiding Pakistan to a thrilling one-wicket win against Bangladesh at Multan. He was rewarded with the captaincy of the team, and despite leading them to victory in the Test series in New Zealand, question-marks about his leadership qualities surfaced when Pakistan were beaten in both the Test series and the one-dayers against India. But the selectors persevered with him and this bore results when he took a team thin on bowling resources to India and drew the Test series with a rousing performance in the final Test, Inzamam’s 100th. After scoring a magnificent 184, Inzamam led the team astutely on a tense final day and took Pakistan to victory. Since that day, Inzamam has gone from strength to strength as captain and premier batsman.

By scoring a hundred against West Indies in June 2005, he kept up a remarkable record of matchwinning centuries, amongt the best of modern-day batsmen. A magnificent year ended with Inzamam leading his team to triumph over Ashes-winning England; personally the series was arguably his best ever. He never failed to make a fifty, scored twin centuries at Faisalabad for the first time, going past Miandad as Pakistan’s leading century-maker and joining him as only the second Pakistani with 8000 Test runs. As captain, he never looked more a leader, uniting a young, inexperienced team and turning them, once again, into a force to matter globally. The turn of the year brought contemplation; he missed the Test victory over India at Karachi with a persistent back injury. 

The Oval test where Inzamam, astonishingly for a man perceived as so insouciant, became the most controversial figure in cricket for a week, leading his side off the field in protest at charges of ball tampering made by umpires Billy Doctrove and Darrell Hair. They refused to come out at first, then delayed the start before eventually forfeiting the Test, the first time in the history of the game. In Pakistan, he became a national hero, saviour of a country’s pride and honour. He was banned for four ODIs and returned to lead the side to a series-win over West Indies followed by a disappointing Test series in South Africa, and then quit the one-day game after Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup at the first hurdle, an event overshadowed by the death of Bob Woolmer.

          

                    Test Match Record
          

          

   Match = 120,  I = 200,  NO=22,  Runs=8830,  HS=329 ,   Ave=50.00+   SR =54.00,   100’s =25,  

   50’s  =46, Ct =81  

Inzamam captained Pakistan  in 25 Tests, winning eight, drawing eight and losing nine. Only three players have captained Pakistan in more Test matches, but all have better win-loss records, and only Imran Khan  has a lower win percentage than Inzamam. However, Inzamam held the captaincy until March 2007, the longest captaincy tenure since 1992 when Imran Khan retired.

          

Captaincy had a positive effect on Inzamam’s batting, often leading by example in pressure situations, he averaged greater as a captain (52) than without (50). After early failures in Australia, he took a depleted Pakistan side to India in 2005 and was instrumental in securing a draw, winning the final test match from an unlikely position with 184*. He subsequently lead his side to an ODI success against West Indies (away), England (home) and Sri Lanka (away) as well as Test Series victories against England (home), India (home), Sri Lanka (away). Inzamam had seemed to have united the Pakistan side and victories lead them to 2nd place in the ICC Test Rankings and 3rd place in the ICC ODI Ranking. The latter part of Inzamam’s tenure as Pakistan captain was less successful and the team was embroiled in many controversies culminating in a disappointingly early exit from the 2007 Cricket WC at the hands of lowly Ireland.

His ability to play at his best under pressure is widely accepted among critics. Sanjay Manjrekar, an Indian television pundit and former batsman, once said that

Inzamam is the world’s best batsman when it comes to playing under pressure.

His 60 off 37 balls in the 1992 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand and 184 against India at Bangalore in the 2005 Pakistan-India test series are examples of innings where Inzamam has performed under immense pressure.

He has been known to be a very destructive batsman in both (ODIs) and Test matchess. He has the ability to pick the length of a delivery very early and play very late. His footwork is generally considered to be fast, enabling him to position himself early for shots. He averaged just over 50 runs per innings in Tests and nearly 40 runs in ODIs, with a strike rate of 54.03 and 74.23 respectively. Inzy is especially strong playing shots off his legs and has been considered to be amongst the best employers of the pull-shot in world cricket.

          

His batting style has brought him fans from all over the world. He was called "the best batsmen in the world against pace" by Imran Khan, because

"he seems to have so much time on his hands before the ball reaches him".

          

Inzamam does, however, have a reputation for being a poor runner between wickets. He has the dubious distinction of being run-out the second highest number of times in ODIs having been run-out 40 times (behind Marvan Atapattu (41 times).

INZAMAM IS THE TRUE CRICKETLEGEND.I am and surely every cricket lover around the world  is very sad to hear the great batsman announces his retirement. He will surely be missed by all Fans.

          

 

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