15 Facts about Ahmed Shehzad - Pakistan's future warrior

Ahmed Shehzad has been phenomenal for Pakistan in the shorter format of the game. He has represented Pakistan in 130 international matches. He is the only Pakistan to score centuries in all the formats of the game. He has 50 international catches to his credit in this short span of time. Clearly, Ahmed Shehzad is a bright prospect for Pakistan. Let’s have a look at some of the interesting facts about Ahmed Shehzad

1. Born on:

Ahmed Shehzad was born on November 23, 1991, Lahore, Punjab. He is an ethnic Afridi Pashtun. He got married to his childhood friend Sana Murad on 19 September 2015.

2. Major teams:

Pakistan, Barisal Burners, Habib Bank Limited, Jamaica Tallawahs, Lahore Eagles, Lahore Lions, Lahore Ravi, Lahore Shalimar.

3. Early start:

Shehzad’s talent was recognised at a very young age. In 2007, he made his first-class debut for Lahore Shalimar at the age of 15. In the game against Karachi Harbour, he scored 4 and 42. Salman Butt was the captain of Lahore in that game.

4. Indiscipline:

When Ahmed Shehzad was on tour with Pakistan Under-19 to Kenya in 2008, he was fined for allegedly going to a nightclub in Nairobi, which broke the team’s curfew rule. Shehzad, then aged 16, maintained that he had gone for dinner with teammate Anwar Ali, but the team management fined him USD 400 and also imposed a ban of two matches.

5. Domestic hero:

He has scored 4399 runs from 64 first-class matches at an average of 40.73 with a strike rate of 59.31, along with 10 centuries and 24 fifties.

6. ODI call up:

Shehzad made his debut for Pakistan in a one-day international against Australia on 29 April 2009. In his maiden match, he got run-out scoring just 4 runs. In the following 3 matches, he scored 40, 43 and 19 respectively.

7. T20 kickstart:

Ahmed Shehzad made his Twenty20 International debut against Australia scoring a single boundary. Despite a failure in the T20I, Shehzad was selected for the Pakistan squad in the ICC World Twenty20 2009 but only played the opening game against England.

8. Comeback tale:

He was recalled to the side in late 2010 for the tour to New Zealand. He sparkled with good performances in T20Is and ODIs scoring his maiden T20I fifty and maiden ODI ton at Hamilton which sealed his place in the World Cup 2011 squad.

9. Controversies child:

The PCB issued Shehzad an official reprimand after his frequent quarrels with Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan about Dilshan’s past and current religions.

10. In the bad books:

He was also dropped from the team after Cricket World Cup 2015. Waqar Younis, the team coach said in a press conference that he has some attitude problems.

11. The highs:

He is the only Pakistani batsman to have scored centuries in all international formats of the game.

12. T20 specialist:

Shehzad has scored most runs, most sixes in a T20I innings as a Pakistani batsman – 5 sixes and 10 boundaries in 111* v Bangladesh.

13. Hitting it big:

He has scored most runs in a 2-match T20 series for Pakistan.

14. The Pakistani Lion

He is the highest run scorer for the Lahore Lions – 1460 runs from 49 matches.

15. The magical numbers:

Ahmed has scored 861 runs from 11 Test matches and notched up 2510 runs from 75 ODIs at an average of 33.91. He has also scored 1049 runs from 44 T20I matches. He has 10 international centuries and 21 fifties for Pakistan.