Name: Faisal Iqbal

Birth date: 1981-12-30

Hometown: Karachi

Teams: Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, Pakistan Reserves

Debut: 19th Feb 2000

ODI Best: 100*

Test Best: 139

Faisal Iqbal belongs to a long list of batsmen that Pakistan has been tried in the middle order with out any great deal of success. Among all these batsmen he has been given the most number of chances despite not being the most consistent. His constant inclusion in the test squad ahead of players like Asim Kamal (who averages over 10 runs more than Iqbal) had raised a lot of eye brows and some have even gone as far as linking his selection to his relationship with Javed Miandad.

A prolific performer at junior level Faisal Iqbal made his test debut at a tender age of twenty (at a time when his uncle was the coach). In his debut test at Auckland he scored 42 and 52* and helped Pakistan score a massive win over NZ, in the next game at Christchurch he scored another 50 in a high scoring draw. The subsequent tour of England how ever didn’t go very well as he was badly exposed by short pitch bowling during the Old Trafford test match and was dropped for a good year and half. His come back series happened to be against AUS and in the very first test match he scored a brilliant 83 of 85 balls against the likes of Warne and Mcgrath how ever once again Faisal wasn’t able to continue his good form and had a disastrous tour of SA and was once again dropped(this time for three years).

Faisal Iqbal returned to the Pakistani team in the famous 06 test match at Karachi where he top scored in the second innings and helped score a famous win. As was the case in the earlier come back Faisal once again had a string of low scores and was dropped again before making a come back in the home series vs SA. He was again called into the squad ahead of notable others in a series at home against Sri Lanka, but another poor series meant he was dropped for the following series. Along with playing 23 test matches Faisal has also played 18 ODIs but even in ODIs his performance has been far from satisfactory(average of 22 and SR of 60). Through out his career Faisal has shown good skills against spin bowling and has played some fighting innings in Sharjah, Karachi, Colombo and Bangalore how ever his performance in places like SA and ENG has been quite atrocious and will have to improve his skills against fast bowling if he is to have a decent career in the green shirt.