Fawad Alam Quits Pakistan Cricket: The left-handed Fawad Alam quits Pakistan cricket career that spanned 15 years to feature in the upcoming Minor League Cricket T20 2023.
Fawad Alam Quits Pakistan cricket
Fawad Alam will turn up as a local player for the Chicago Kingsmen in Minor League Cricket T20, a tournament that underpins USA’s just concluded flagship T20 tournament Major League Cricket (MLC).
Alam joins a long list of Pakistan players like Sami Aslam, Hammad Azam, Saif Badar and Mohammad Mohsin who moved bases to the USA to ply their trade in the country. Fawad Tariq Alam made his international debut for Pakistan in May 2007 and returned to Pakistan’s Test team after a gap of 88 Tests and more than 10 years.
This is the second longest gap by a Pakistani in Test cricket after Younis Ahmed’s 104 Tests gap. In July 2009, Fawad became the first Pakistani cricketer to score a Test century on debut away from home, and the tenth to score a century on debut, scoring 168 runs in the second innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka.
After failing to qualify for the 2007 Cricket World Cup Super 8 stage, Fawad was drafted into a 16-man squad for an ODI series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. On debut, he was out for a first-ball duck. His second ODI was a better experience as he contributed 32 unbeaten runs down the order as Pakistan beat India by 31 runs in Jaipur.
Alam established himself in the Test team for a brief period after his career got a new lease of life in 2020. He vindicated his selection with a hundred in New Zealand in trying circumstances in his 3rd game after the comeback. He topped that up with hundreds against South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
He was part of Pakistan’s 2009 T20 World Cup winning squad but could only muster up 11 more games in the format after the championship win. Fawad was picked to tour England in 2010. He played club cricket in England to help himself get used to the conditions.
Fawad scored well in the first two matches but his major breakthrough came in the third ODI when he increased his top score to 64. He retained his place for the ODI series against South Africa in the UAE.
After scoring 123 runs in the five-match series, he was subsequently dropped from the ODI team and later that year, lost his place in the T20 team after the tour to New Zealand.
With respect to career batting average, Fawad is among the all-time top 50 batsmen in first-class cricket; he is the sole Pakistani on the list.
He played 19 Tests, 38 ODIs and 24 T20Is for Pakistan and scored 1011, 966 and 194 runs respectively which include 6 centuries. His six centuries include 5 Test centuries and a solitary ODI century against Sri Lanka in the 2014 Asia Cup.
