Mohammad Sami

Mohammad Sami

Pakistan

Full name Mohammad Sami
Born February 24, 1981, Karachi, Sind
Current age 26 years 5 days
Major teams Pakistan, Karachi, Kent, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Customs
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast

Statsguru

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	30	46	11	382	49	10.91	1231	31.03	0	0	43	2	7	0
ODIs	79	43	19	275	46	11.45	434	63.36	0	0	12	9	18	0
First-class	81	107	34	1034	49	14.16			0	0			30	0
List A	111	63	26	403	46	10.89			0	0			24	0
Twenty20	10	5	1	26	8	6.50	25	104.00	0	0			5	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4	5	10
Tests	30	6252	3686	77	5/36	8/106	47.87	3.53	81.19	3	2	0
ODIs	79	3908	3237	111	5/10	5/10	29.16	4.96	35.20	3	1	0
First-class	81	14920	8692	283	8/64		30.71	3.49	52.72		14	2
List A	111	5521	4576	159	6/20	6/20	28.77	4.97	34.72	4	2	0
Twenty20	10	233	283	7	2/14	2/14	40.42	7.28	33.28	0	0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	New Zealand v Pakistan at Auckland - Mar 8-12, 2001
Last Test	South Africa v Pakistan at Cape Town - Jan 26-28, 2007
ODI debut	Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Sharjah - Apr 8, 2001
Last ODI	South Africa v Pakistan at Centurion - Feb 4, 2007
First-class span	1999/00 - 2006/07
List A span	1999/00 - 2006/07
Twenty20 span	2003 - 2006/07

Profile

One of a new generation of Pakistan fast bowlers, Mohammad Sami initially forced his way into the Test team with outstanding performances in domestic cricket and had an immediate impact in his first Test with five wickets against New Zealand. Then, in only his third Test, he notched a hat-trick, eking out the last three Sri Lankans in the Asian Test Championship final and he also has an ODI hat-trick. But since those early years, and especially after the World Cup 2003, when he was expected to become the Pakistan spearhead after the retirements of Wasim and Waqar, his story has been a fitful and thus far disappointing one.

Series after series has seen him disappoint as a stream of promising paceman have overtaken him, including the likes of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. Occasionally when the mood takes him, he can be threatening, as he was for some of the India series in 2005, especially at Kolkatta and the occasional ODI. For the most part he has been surprisingly ineffective and prone to leaking runs. So poor was his form after the India series in early 2006, he was finally dropped from the tour to Sri Lanka was lucky to be selected for the tour to England that summer, after a number of Pakistan's frontline bowlers were injured.

Nobody seems to be entirely sure where the problem lies either - he has been given the new-ball with license to attack, he has come on as first-change. He is fit - one of the fittest in the team - and athletic. From a shortish run-up and high action he generates surprising pace, settled in the mid-to-late eighties but with occasional forays into the nineties. He also quickly mastered traditional outswing and reverse-swing and bowls a mean yorker. Some say it is a confidence thing but a bowling average of nearly 50 after 26 Tests (and a strike rate of over 80) means that opportunities might be limited when other pacemen are fit again. It would have been an unthinkable thought when he took eight wickets on his Test debut.