Author : Krunal
Zaheer Khan, an Indian bowler, was born on October 7, 1978 in Srirampur town in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Nicknamed “Zak”, he is one of the best players in the Indian cricket team, who is a left arm fast-medium bowler and a right-handed batsman. Bakhtiyar, his father, had a photography studio and his mother was a school supervisor, and he has two brothers, Zeeshan and Anees. As a child, Zaheer Khan grew up watching the college lads play cricket and eventually joined them as a fielder. Later, when he was 17, he went to Mumbai with his father to play cricket.
In 2000, Zaheer Khan was selected in the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and made his Test debut on November 10, 2003 in a match against Bangladesh in Dhaka. During the 2002-03 season, he had a major breakthrough in his Test career, when he was selected in the team that went to play in West Indies in April 2002. In this period, Zaheer Khan took 54 wickets from 16 matches at an average of 30 runs, including the top five wickets (5 for 95) in the first match against Australia. In 2004, in a match against Bangladesh, he scored 75 runs in the 133 runs partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, setting up a world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 and an Indian-record for the tenth-wicket. As of 2008, Zaheer Khan has featured in 56 test matches and has taken 178 wickets, his best being 5/29.
Zaheer Khan made his first One Day International (ODI) appearance on October 3, 2000 in a match against Kenya in Nairobi at the International Cricket Council (ICC) KnockOut Trophy. He, along with Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra, Indian seamers, lent a helping hand in taking India through to the finals at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. At the end of the successful 2003, Zaheer Khan had taken 18 wickets from 11 matches and became the fourth highest wicket taker. In late 2006, he was called to the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa, and performed well in the ODIs. He continued his good form in the Home ODIs against West Indies and Sri Lanka in early 2007 and his 5/42 record is his career best score in ODIs. Owing to his impressive performances, he was named in the Indian cricket squad that played at the 2007 Cricket World Cup. As of 2008, Zaheer Khan played 146 ODIs and scalped 205 wickets, including his four-wicket haul in six matches and thirty two wickets against Zimbabwe. His batting average of 19.46 at number 10 is also the highest for a bowler in ODIs.
Zaheer Khan started his Indian domestic cricketing career by initially playing for Baroda during the 1999-00 season. In 2006, he transferred to Mumbai team making his debut for the Mumbai team at the finals of Ranji Trophy against Bengal, and went on to take nine wickets, contributing to Mumbai’s victory over Bengal. Zaheer Khan signed with Worcestershire County Cricket Club as their second overseas player in 2006 and made his first appearance for the club in a match against Somerset, taking ten wickets. In June 2006, he played in a match against Essex and took nine wickets, finishing with 9-138.
Zaheer Khan made his Twenty20 (T20) debut for Worcestershire on June 27, 2006 against Glamorgan and on December 1, 2006 he played his first and only T20 International match against South Africa in Johannesburg. He was purchased for an amount of $450,000 by Vijay Mallya, the owner of Bangalore-Royal Challengers, to play at the Indian Premier League (IPL). During the IPL, Zaheer Khan played eleven matches for the team, securing 13 wickets in 252 balls and as of 2008 he has featured in 21 Twenty20 matches.
Owing to his impressive performances, Zaheer Khan was named 2002 Indian Cricketer of the Year and 2008 Wisden Cricketer of the Year award.
