Shoaib Malik

Shoaib Malik is a professional Pakistan player and also the current captain of the team. He is an all rounder. He is a right handed batsman and a right arm offbreak bowler. He started his career as just an off spinner. His Test debut was against Bangladesh in 2001 while the One day International debut was against the West Indies in 1999. Malik is known for his flexibility. He can rotate the strike with good placement and can also play the big shots.

Malik is known for his consistent batting style. His strike rate per 100 balls is 77.23 runs which can be compared with Inzaman ul Haq and Rahul Dravid. Malik has taken more than 100 One day International wickets where his economy rate is less than 4.5 and average is less than 35. His bowling action was scrutinized however he has undergone an elbow surgery to amend it.

In case of Test matches Malik has a better batting average against South Africa and Sri Lanka when compared with other countries. In One day Internationals his batting average against West Indies, South Africa and India is better than his overall career average. In the Tests Malik has batted in five different positions and in case of one dayers, except the 11th position he has batted in all positions which is an unusual record.

After the retirement of the former Pakistan player Inzamam ul Haq, Malik was asked to lead the team. The Pakistan Cricket Board on 19th April 2007 appointed Malik as captain. The reasons for such an appointment are his experience in a relatively young age and his consistent performance. In Test Cricket while playing against Sri Lanka he batted for an entire day and scored and unbeaten 148 which was a match saving innings.

Major achievements

In the current LG ICC ODI All Rounder Rankings Malik is ranked number 1 all rounder in the world.