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November 28, 2007

Shahid Afridi: "[Shoaib] Malik needs to be confident ahead of the second Test and must push the players to do better"

Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi wants Shoaib Malik, the captain, to be "tough and demanding" to get the most out of his players in order for Pakistan to fight back in the Test series. Pakistan are trailing 0-1 in the three-Test series after India won by six wickets in Delhi.

"If a player is not performing to his optimum level, the captain must be tough and demand more. I think our team was in a position to win the first Test," Afridi, who was omitted from the Test squad after the one-day series defeat, told PTI.

"Experience counts for a lot and [Anil] Kumble led their team well and intelligently. Malik can also do a similar job but he needs to be confident ahead of the second Test and must push the players to do better."

However, Moin Khan, a former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper, said that Malik could not be blamed because captaincy happened too suddenly for him.

"He [Malik] doesn't have the captaincy experience," Moin told Cricinfo. "He just captained his regional side for some Twenty20 games and suddenly he becomes the captain of the national side. It is going to take time for him to develop. The problem lies with the board. They should have groomed a captain." Moin felt the Test captaincy could have been given to Mohammad Yousuf while Malik could have continued to be the captain in the ODIs.

Afridi said that Pakistan were in a strong position when they gained the lead on the third evening in Delhi. However, on the fourth morning, they lost their last five wickets for 35 runs and set India a target of only 203. Afridi said that the batsmen needed to apply themselves more.

"The batting didn't go all the way after a good start. I have no doubt if we had got another 80 to 100 runs, we could have won this Test match," Afridi said. "It was disappointing to lose out in the end. I am sure the rest of the team will be eager to make a comeback in the second Test in Kolkata. But the other bowlers also need to give more support to Shoaib Akhtar."

Shoaib, who took six wickets including all four to fall in India's second innings, received little support from the other bowlers. Danish Kaneria, the legspinner, was especially disappointing, going for 0 for 50 in the final innings.

"They must have tried hard but the results are important," Afridi said. "I was surprised that Kaneria didn't take more wickets on this pitch. I think he was not as effective because of his shortened run-up. He will get more bite into his bowling if he goes back to his old bowling action which allows him more flight and turn."

"It is just a matter of getting back the confidence. In 2005, when we were down in the series, we only came back in the final Test in Bangalore because we believed we could do it and Inzamam [ul-Haq] kept telling us we were close to squaring the series. But the batting must click big time like it did in Bangalore."

Pakistan in India, 2007-08

 

The players have been provided heavy security cover ahead of the second Test in Kolkata

If injury concerns ruled all conversation on the field, it was security that created a buzz off it in Kolkata ahead of the second Test between India and Pakistan. The Taj Bengal hotel, the standard port of call for international teams in the city, was turned into a virtual fortress with police personnel making entry and exit almost impossible if you were not directly involved with the team.

Forty-eight hours before the game's scheduled start, nearly 5000 city policemen were involved in the protection of the two teams, a number that will increase manifold by Friday morning. In the wake of the e-mail threat directed at the Pakistan players, local authorities are taking no chances.

"It is the role of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to manage the security arrangements for our players," Ehsan Malik, the Pakistan media manager, said. "For the players and the team management it is their job to focus on the cricket."

It is inconceivable, though, that the players are not affected by the security blanket surrounding them. At the hotel electronic bag scanners check every article of luggage entering the premises. The two floors where the teams are housed have been fitted with door-frame metal detectors at the beginning and end of each corridor and other security measures include hand-held metal detectors, a round-the-clock bomb detection and defusal squad and patrolling by sniffer dogs. At the stadium, a police source confirmed, at least 40 closed-circuit cameras will installed before the start of the Test.

All player movement to and from the hotel has to be cleared by the police, who have appointed designated officers to look after each player and accompany them on any trips outside. Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly had to stop off at a hotel close to the ground to attend a product endorsement, and this was done with full police escort on the roads and in the hotel they visited. It is not clear what the situation will be if a player wants to leave the team hotel on his own, but it is learned that the players have been strongly advised against doing so.

The additional security arrangements have already caused problems for non-team members scheduled to stay at the Taj Bengal. Some team sponsors, who were booked to stay at the hotel for the duration of the Test, have been forced to find alternate accommodation, not an easy task to achieve in the last minute with a medical conference making available hotel rooms scarce in Kolkata.

Also, for the first time in recent memory, match officials have been moved out of the team hotel. It is customary practice for the umpires and match referee to stay with the teams, but this time the officials are being put up at the ITC Sonar Bangla hotel, a good distance away from the Eden Gardens. Do the security personnel think the match referee or one of the umpires poses a threat to the players?

That surely, is not the case, but when you speak to anyone involved with security, the common refrain is, "we're not taking any chances."

Shoaib Malik will be hoping his troublesome ankle heals in time for the Kolkata Test © AFP

It's hard to remember when last a team was in such disarray before a must-win Test match. Pakistan's injury problems began as a bothersome aside but have now taken centre stage as they have only three fit bowlers going into the Kolkata Test. India, on the other hand, are sitting pretty, with their one doubtful starter, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, having recovered fully from a twisted ankle. An SOS has been sent to the Pakistan selectors, but with flight connectivity to Kolkata not being the greatest, it will be a challenge to get someone in with enough time to spare to take the field in the second Test.

More than a few experts have been surprised by the rise of Sohail Tanvir, who with his unorthodox action, delivering not quite off the wrong foot but releasing the ball before his leading foot lands, was a novelty in Twenty20 cricket before sneaking into the one-day team. Now, with one Test under his belt, he is likely to lead Pakistan's pace attack, with Umar Gul out, and Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami struggling with chest infections and illness. Tanvir has Danish Kaneria and Abdur Rehman as his only fully fit bowling partners.

Although India must be secretly boosted by Pakistan's troubles, Anil Kumble insists his team are not thinking of the composition of the opposition side. "Ideally we should look to control what we can control. The team is raring to go and that is a good sign," said Kumble a day before the game.

It's not a bad approach to take, for Pakistan could just be at their most dangerous if Shoaib or Sami, or both, are somehow fit when play begins on Friday, though that seems desperately unlikely. Pakistan now truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and this will mean that any relief they get is a positive and should boost them going into the game.

India, meanwhile, have a choice of their own to make, with a thought to bring in a third spinner in Murali Kartik. However, in order to do so, they will have to do some significant juggling, either using one of the middle-order batsmen as an opener and leaving out Dinesh Karthik, who has scored heavily in Tests this year, barring the last game, or play just one fast bowler and use Sourav Ganguly as a medium-pace option. Both seem unlikely, though Ganguly did play a significant part with the ball in the first Test.

"I think Sourav has done well in the last game, and I don't think he should change whatever he has been doing to satisfy your definition of success," said Kumble when asked about Ganguly's effort with the ball. "I think his role in the team, as a bowler it was very important for us in Kotla. I am sure he will get a bit of bowl here as well. I hope he will be more successful here than in Kotla."

Either way, the decision on the playing XI will be made late in the day, after consultation with Dilip Vengsarkar, who is expected to arrive in Kolkata on the eve of the match. The only thing that could tempt the Indians into playing three spinners is the pitch, but it's tough to say if there are strong enough indications that the pitch will crumble. The curator insists it will begin to take turn on the third day, but such predictions are dangerous.

"It seems to be a decent wicket and it should play well," said Kumble. "But it is for us to take the momentum from Kotla and ensure that we turn the screws on early. We need to bat to our potential, and we should not let them off the hook as we had done in the first innings in Kotla."

What makes it harder to believe that the Indians will play three spinners is the fact that Harbhajan Singh was quite significantly under-bowled in the first Test. He bowled 15 overs in the first innings and 17 in the second, and on both occasions even Zaheer Khan had sent down more overs.

It's too early to judge Kumble the captain, after just one Test match, but already he appears to be a man in control of his team. He's been playing the game at the highest level for 17 long years and there's little he has not experienced first hand.

Malik, however, barely portrays the same picture. Again it would be unfair to slate Malik without inside knowledge of how he interacted with his team, but on the field he has not looked a leader. He has looked like just one of the boys, and with the results not coming, and the runs also reducing to a trickle, the pressure is fairly and squarely on Malik. One thing's pretty clear, though, if he gets through these testing times unscathed, things are only going to get easier for him.

Teams
India (probable): 1 Dinesh Karthik, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Anil Kumble (capt), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Munaf Patel.

Pakistan (from): Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Yasir Arafat, Faisal Iqbal.

October 12, 2007

Virender Sehwag will lead the India Blue team

India's top three cricketers - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - will not take part in the upcoming NKP Salve Challenger Trophy with the selectors deciding to rest them in view of the busy schedule ahead. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan have also been rested from the tournament to be held in Ahmedabad from October 25 to 28.

Virender Sehwag, who was not part of India's one-day team, will lead the India Blue team while Mohammad Kaif was named captain of India Red. Wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel will captain India Green.

All the players who have joined the Indian Cricket League were not named in any of the three teams announced by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah through a press release. Although the release did not specify why the senior players were left out, a BCCI source said it was done only to give them some rest ahead of the series against Pakistan and Australia.

Pakistan were scheduled to visit India in November and December for three Tests and five one-dayers which would be followed by India's tour of Australia.

The tournament will provide a chance for Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina and others who are looking to cement their place in the Indian team. Murali Kartik, who got a surprise recall to the senior side after a long gap midway through the ongoing series against Australia, has found a place in the Green team.

Each team will play once against each other to decide the finalists.

Teams:

India Red: Mohammad Kaif (capt), Karan Goel, Gautam Gambhir, Subramaniam Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Ravneet Ricky, Praveen Kumar, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Pragyan Ojha, Sidharth Trivedi, Ishant Sharma, Pinal Shah, Srikant Munde, Paresh Patel.

India Blue: Virender Sehwag (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suresh Raina, Neeraj Patel, Arjun Yadav, Joginder Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Amit Mishra, Yo Mahesh, Randeb Bose, Swapnil Asnodkar, Rakesh V Dhruv, Saurav Bandekar

India Green: Parthiv Patel (capt/wk), Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Murali Kartik, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Niranjan Behra, Iqbal Abdullah, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Gagandeep Singh, Anirudh Srikant, Satyajeet Parab.

November 28, 2005

Inzamam-ul-Haq has often talked of the need to handle pressure as being the key to succeeding in international cricket. His best innings, as detailed below, have been compiled when the pressure has been at its greatest, and Inzamam at his most unflappable.

Inzamam-ul Haq's best innings: leading Pakistan to victory in the World Cup semi-final

60 v New Zealand, Auckland, 1992 World Cup semi-final. Pakistan won by four wickets.
The innings that catapulted Inzamam onto the international map helped Pakistan win the World Cup, and encapsulated what he means to Pakistan. He came in at 140 for 4, with 123 runs still needed at more than eight an over. Guided by the wily Javed Miandad in a partnership of 87 and abetted by some clean hitting, he departed 37 balls later with Pakistan on the verge of a famous victory. He rates it as his best innings "for the pressure I was playing under".

138* v Bangladesh, Multan, 2003. Pakistan won by one wicket
In his home town for a comeback series after a disastrous World Cup and an embarrassing defeat against newcomers - pressure, what pressure? Inzamam farmed the strike superbly, mixing defiance with aggression as Pakistan chased 261 on a seaming wicket. He then ran out Umar Gul and teetered precariously between villain and hero as the debutant rabbit Yasir Ali came out to bat with four still needed. Inzi got the strike, flicked behind square for his 20th boundary, and ensured he became a hero. "I just kept thinking there was no way we could lose this Test," he said.

Inzamam-ul-Haq lashes out during his matchwinning innings against Bangladesh

329 v New Zealand, Lahore, 2002. Pakistan won by an innings and 324 runs
A masterly knock in searing heat, and one in which the last 108 runs came mostly in boundaries as Inzamam battled severe cramps. He batted for nearly 10 hours, hit 38 boundaries, and dispelled doubts over his fitness. It was Pakistan's most comprehensive Test victory. "I was trying to break the world record by hitting boundaries - I only had Danish [Kaneria] left." Inzamam hit three of his nine sixes off Brooke Walker in one over before perishing chasing a fourth.

122 v India, Karachi, 2004. India won by five runs
Inzamam out-batted the world's best batting line-up and did it with a nonchalance that bordered on the psychotic given the target (350). He flicked, cut, swept, drove and ran hard to a majestic century, taking Pakistan to within five runs of victory. The shot of the day? A lazy flick off a good-length ball from a bewildered Ashish Nehra through square leg for four. An innings not likely to be forgotten by those who saw it.

Chasing 350: Inzamam-ul-Haq made a valiant 122 against India

201* for United Bank Limited v Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, 1989. UBL won by six wickets
The innings that propelled him into the national limelight. After a young speedster by the name of Waqar Younis had ripped through PNSC in the first innings with 6 for 33, Inzamam came in at one down on a seaming wicket and proceeded to dominate a line-up that included the Test bowler Azeem Hafeez and Amin Lakhani, a veteran left-arm spinner, for 249 minutes. Haroon Rasheed believes it to be the best innings he has seen. "It was a difficult track - and he was only 19 at the time, but he destroyed them."

184 v India, Bangalore, March 2005. Pakistan won by 168 runs
One down in the series and a second series loss to India in one year beckoned. The entrance was much as usual; Pakistan in trouble at 7 for 2, Inzamam looking distinctly unworried. He carried on much the same way from the moment he hit his first boundary, a hunched push with a little hop for afters through cover. Thereafter, he varied only in tempo not temperament; till 50 you barely noticed him, but after it, right after lunch, he detonated. By the time he approached his 21st century, he had settled down again, methodical in his singles and easy in his boundaries. He departed to his first ball on the second morning, but by then with Younis Khan, had put Pakistan well on their way to a series-leveling win. It was the 16th time out of 21 that his century had led to a win.

Scourging England: Inzamam-ul-Haq equals and goes past Javed Miandad

86 v India, Mohali, March 2005 Match drawn
Inzamam's angriest innings, and thus one of his best. In a huff he walked out after, improbably on another flat pitch, Pakistan's top order contributed three horrendous dismissals to the first ten runs of the second innings. Soon after he began, he poached three boundaries in an over from Balaji. The last one, no more than a crouched defensive push to the right of mid-off, warned of his mood and form. Anil Kumble, a traditional tormentor, was bludgeoned back over his head in signature Inzamam style. When he departed 105 balls later, for the second time in a year, he had sparkled brightest among the most celebrated modern day batting line-up, and more importantly, given Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq a base from which to save the match the next day.

109 & 100* v England, Faisalabad, November 2005 Match drawn
Only in comparison to what he had been doing for the past year, do these innings pale slightly. They seemed inevitable, given how composed and untroubled he had appeared through the series. He steadied the ship in the first, only to be dismissed in contention, but for the second, on the final morning, he saved his best. He resumed on 41, with only the tail, albeit stodgy, for company. Refusing to farm the strike conventionally, he allowed his partners to take away time, while he took the target further away from England. He scored 59 off the 85 runs Pakistan made that morning, six of them from a thunderous slog off Harmison over the back over his head. The two innings prompted Michael Vaughan to call him the only difference between the two sides throughout the match. Oh, and he also equalled and then broke Javed Miandad's long-standing record as the highest century-maker for Pakistan.

'Inzamam is Pakistan's best batting talent'

October 7, 2007

Rameez Raja: "Inzamam had this ability to score runs when it mattered the most, under pressure"

Rameez Raja: Inzamam-ul-Haq is all set to retire from international cricket after the second Test against South Africa and the world will miss a genius, so here's wishing him all the luck.

I first heard of Inzamam from my brother Wasim Raja, who had taken him with the Pakistan U-19 team to the West Indies in 1988. Traditionally the U-19 set-up would throw up names of fast bowlers, but to hear a batsman being spoken about as a genius was a pleasant surprise.

Later, at the end of the year, Inzamam attended a nets session of the Pakistan team for a try out and the rest, as they say, is history. He had to wait for all of us to finish our session, and I distinctly remember, in the dying light at the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore, he hit the Pakistani bowlers into the stands, pulling so ferociously that almost all the balls were lost. He had presence, power, a great eye, and time to play fast bowling. We had surely unearthed Pakistan's best-ever batting talent.

Inzy turned out to be a dressing-room delight as well. He had a very dry sense of humour. His fans and friends were once pestering him to describe the best way of playing [Muttiah] Muralitharan and his reply was, "The best way to play Murali is not to play him at all."

He was always in control of his emotions, which allowed him to think clearly through difficult cricketing situations. I would rate him as Pakistan's best player under pressure because some 19-odd centuries of the 25 that he scored were match-winning efforts. He had a Zen-like calmness, especially when he was batting with the tail, and that spurred everyone around him to play above their best. He never believed too much in practising, but he had this great ability to score runs when it mattered the most, under pressure.

As an individual, he weathered many regime changes to have an uninterrupted run as a Pakistani cricketer.

He has been great for Pakistan cricket. He was the ayatollah of the team and he will surely be missed.

For the better part of two decades Inzamam-ul-Haq has earned the respect of bowlers the world over. Cricinfo asked five men who went head to head with the man for their impressions of him.

Kumble has been among the very few bowlers who has had consistent success against Inzamam

Anil Kumble
He was one of the top five batsmen I bowled to in international cricket and I was fortunate enough to get him on more than a few occasions. He always had a lot of time, knew when to take the risk and when just to push along. He was very good at planning an innings.

Inzy could hang in there and control the game and guide the Pakistan batting, but at the same time he could occasionally become impatient.

I always felt that he was more vulnerable if he first faced spin when he came in than the fast bowlers, because against fast bowlers he could move his feet easily. I trapped him quite a few times in front of the stumps - not just because of his late foot movement, but also because I tended to bowl quicker since he was a bit suspect in front of the wicket.

If you weren't successful, he could be a challenge. As he proved against India, in his second-last Test here, in Bangalore during the 2005 series, where he just went on and on to pile up 184. My other favourite Inzy innings was the one against Bangladesh at Multan in 2003.

He was not someone who was aggressive in his body language; he was always self-contained. I don't think one could play mental games with him.

Favorite Inzamam shot The back-foot punch.

Allan Donald
Bowling to Inzy was almost like bowling to a brick wall. Everything about him was unfazed, nothing could rattle him - he was so solid. He was very calm of nature, and even as captain you felt he never got angry. The only time I saw him angry was when Pakistan were called off the field at The Oval last year.

As a batsman he was a very, very difficult guy to bowl to. He was not the most elegant batsman ever seen, but he was very effective in his own way - a bit like Steve Waugh; and I'm not comparing him to Steve Waugh, just comparing their natures. Inzi was very resilient and put a very high price on his wicket.

When he was playing really well he had all the time in the world and all the shots to go with it. He played from quite deep in the crease and that gave him more time. The minute you started coming a bit fuller, thinking you might get him through the gate, the timing of his shots was incredible. He had such good balance for a big guy.

Our strategy was to bowl a little bit fuller and make sure that it was on the off stump, and not middle and off, because he was very good working the ball off the stumps. In the first 15-20 balls he didn't really look to get into the ball or at the ball on the front foot, so we concentrated on bowling fuller and finishing on the off stump. Then we would try peppering in the short one from time to time, because the bounce had been his undoing here in South Africa sometimes.

You can't compare Inzy to any of his team-mates, or even former Pakistan batsmen. This guy, to me, was the one batsman who showed a bit more real guts: to get out there, apply himself, get over the hot period and get himself in Allan Donald

But over a period of time we realised we were wasting our time trying to bounce him early on because he almost wanted us to do that. What made our job difficult was he was very patient, and that was because he was very disciplined: He left a lot of balls and was a good judge of pitches and how to leave balls on the bounce or lack of bounce. He was good at wearing bowlers down. Sometimes it felt as though if anything was going to get him out it was him getting bored and playing a rash shot or running himself out. Mentally you couldn't upset him. It didn't matter what you said. In that respect he is like Jacques Kallis.

You can't compare Inzy to any of his team-mates, or even former Pakistan batsmen. This guy, to me, was the one batsman who showed a bit more real guts: to get out there, apply himself, get over the hot period and get himself in.

He was no doubt a great batsman and he would be in my top five: Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mike Atherton.

Favourite Inzamam shot My favourite Inzy shot was the straight drive. He didn't really look to hit through the line to a ball that was full: he would always hit it down the ground past the bowler, the hallmark of a top-class player.

Damien Fleming
During the 1994 tour of Pakistan, in the game before my Test debut, at Karachi I was the twelfth man and I was asked to put the champagne on ice when the ninth wicket for Pakistan went down. But by the end of it Inzamam and Mushy [Mushtaq Ahmed] put on 60-odd to win the game. Inzamam showed a lot of maturity, a lot of class, putting faith in his partner not to panic even if he was a No. 11. He was an intelligent cricketer.

I did get Inzamam a few times early in his innings. Being a swing bowler I backed myself to get a nick or to trap him lbw early, as he was never a great starter, but once he got going he covered all types of bowling, playing with no obvious weakness. Like all great batsmen, once he got in the zone he didn't throw his wicket away - he went on to get big scores.

For a big man he didn't try and over-hit the ball. And he didn't need to, because he had wonderful timing and immense power.

Hoggard thinks he has his man, at Multan in 2005

Yes, he could be quite slow on his bat swing and on getting his front foot down at times, and so a couple of times I hit his pad before the bat came down. But over the years his defences couldn't be breached and the only way out then was to build the pressure and make him run hard between the wickets without giving him any cheap singles or doubles.

I still remember his great hundred against us in Hobart in 1999-00. At one point I was pretty flattened out and out of ideas. So I came round the wicket and bowled a couple of dot-balls and pushed him back. Then I thought I would bowl him the slower one, the offspinner, which used to get a lot of batsmen driving on the up. It came out perfectly but he picked it up, waited for it to land and just smashed it through the covers for four. Normally the weight of the batsman is on the back foot and the loopy one brings them forward, and if they are not to the pitch of the ball it goes in the air. But Inzy adjusted his shot and his timing - and this was during the second innings when it was real difficult. Only great players can do that.

One of my lasting memories of Inzy was during his last trip to Australia [2004-05]. The Australian press asked him what he felt about Glenn McGrath targetting him during the series. Inzy's response was, "Isn't that what bowlers do?" Always made his point in his own way without saying too much.

Favorite Inzamam shot I like batsmen who hook and pull and Inzi was always a good one to watch in that regard.

Chaminda Vaas
It was always a challenge to bowl to Inzamam, one of the greats of international cricket in both forms of the game. It was not difficult to bowl at him as such, but his was never a cheap wicket - he always was among runs. You had to bowl in good areas; the margin of error against him was very, very limited.

As a left-armer my natural delivery to him was the inswinger and that seemed to put him in trouble often, but if it was not pitched properly he would dominate soon. What I mean by good areas is: good line and length, around eight inches up always, and keep hitting particular spots the pitch which would get him.

For him it came naturally: he was very relaxed, just like Mark Waugh and Carl Hooper. Without a doubt he is among my top five batsmen Chaminda Vaas

Inzamam was as strong in defence as he was in attack. He had good eyes and was a good timer of the ball. He always made many runs on subcontinental wickets against both pace and spin.

I have seen very few cricketers in international cricket who have so much time to play their shots. For him it came naturally: he was very relaxed, just like Mark Waugh and Carl Hooper. Without a doubt he is among my top five batsmen.

Matthew Hoggard
Inzamam is one of the greatest batsmen that has ever lived. And one of his greatest virtues was that he had so much time for his shots. That was because he always hung back; he didn't lunge at the ball and get forward mentally - like all great batsmen in history.

He was very much an accumulator of runs but, having said that, you didn't know what mode he would come out in to bat. He could switch from defence to attack without any trouble. And he always looked to bat for long time.

Part of his success was that he played himself in - just looked to stay in till he got the pace of the wicket and the bounce. He would try and make sure he was still there when the bowlers were in their third or fourth spells, because that's when he scored the majority of his runs.

My strategy to get him was simple. He was susceptible to the lbw early on, with the ball nipping backwards, as he didn't move his feet that much. And he was too good to get easily riled mentally. Having said that, he could surprise you with his aggression on occasions. I remember in my second Test, at Old Trafford, I hit him on the head and the next ball he tried to hit me out of the ground. Thankfully he didn't connect properly.

Favorite Inzamam shot The hook and pull were his best shots - he just had so much time to play them.