Saqlain Mushtaq is a former cricketer from Pakistan who was born on December 29, 1976 in Lahore. He was a right-arm off-break bowler and is one of the best spinners cricket has ever seen.

Saqlain Mushtaq is a cricketer who plays for the Pakistan national cricket team. He has been part of the team since 1995 and has enjoyed a successful period with the squad. Saqlain Mushtaq was born on December 29, 1976 in Lahore, Punjab. Saqlain Mushtaq made his debut for the Pakistan national cricket team in 1995 in the ODI/T20/Test format.

Playing primarily as a team bowler, Saqlain Mushtaq is a prolific right-arm off-break bowler who has won many wickets for teams in both domestic and international cricket. He can also bat in the lower order and has scored some important runs for the team. Saqlain Mushtaq hits with the right bat. He is a brilliant outfield player and can set up anywhere on the ground. He is good with both his ground field and his catching.

Saqlain Mushtaq plays for the Pakistan National Cricket Team ODI/T20/Test format. He represents Ireland, Pakistan, Islamabad Cricket Association, Lahore Badshahs, Pakistan International Airlines, Surrey and Sussex team in national cricket.

Saqlain Mushtaq has taken 833 wickets, plays for the Pakistan national cricket team and is a successful player for the team.

Early Life

Saqlain was born in Lahore on December 29, 1976 to a government employee. He has two older brothers: Sibtain, who also played first-class cricket for Lahore, and Zulqurnain. Saqlain played for Govt. M.A.O. College Lahore for three years, winning the championship every year. Saqlain never played cricket at school level, but started playing for Zareef Memorial Cricket Club Second Eleven when he was just 13 years old. He always wanted to be an off-spinner: “I never wanted to be a fast bowler. I was very thin and never had too much strength in my body."

Saqlain was coached at club level by Ahmad Hassan and his brothers. At the age of 14 he went to the Government MAO College Lahore, where he was coached by Mumtaz Akhtar Butt. He played for college and won the championship three straight years.

Domestic Career

In 1995, Saqlain debuted in first-class cricket and played 194 games in which he sacked 833 batsmen with a 23.56 batting average. He has the best bowling figure of 8/65 in an innings. He bowled brilliantly in first-class career and hit 60 five-wicket hauls.

Saqlain also made 11 fifties in his batting career, where he got 52 wickets in his first season in top-flight cricket. He began his national career in List A career that same year, playing 323 games and winning 478 wickets with a bowling average of 23.55. He received seven hauls in five wickets and 16 hauls in four wickets.

Saqlain also played nine matches in T20 domestic cricket, dismissing 14 Batman with his best bowling figure of 3/24.

In February 2006 he signed for Ireland for the C&G Trophy alongside teammate Abdul Razzaq. Later, in February 2007, Sussex announced that Saqlain had signed them to a two-year deal. His first request was to represent Pakistan's Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who were part of Pakistan's World Cup campaign. On September 26, 2007, Saqlain was released by the county at his request. On 8 October 2007, Saqlain was re-signed from Surrey. He was released by Surrey on October 28.

In April 2009 he joined Old Whitgiftians CC to play in the Surrey Championship. He took 64 wickets in his freshman season, including five 5-wicket hauls, to earn Whit's promotion to the Premier League. He was also active in the junior division. In 2010, after moving to Leicestershire, he joined Syston Town Cricket Club and played in the Everards County League. In late 2010 he was coaching in Taunton at the facilities of Somerset County Cricket Club, which he has now joined as a temporary spin bowling coach for the 2011 Caribbean Twenty20 competition. On 11 April 2013 it was announced that Saqlain would be moving to Birmingham League Division Three Side Evesham for the 2013 season.

International Career

Test Format

Saqlain began his Test career on September 8, 1995 against Sri Lanka in Peshawar. He fired four batsmen in the debut game and fished the series with nine wickets at an average of 26.76. He was picked up again against the same side, taking 14 wickets in two consecutive Test matches.

In six months he won his first five wickets against the African Nation at the Rawalpindi Stadium. He became Man of the Match in the third Test against West Indies where he won nine wickets and became the reason for a clean win over an opponent.

The high point of his Test career came in the 1999 away series against India, where he made his first ten-wicket move in a Test match. He took five wicket moves in both innings of the game. In the first Test, where India needed just 17 runs to win, Saqlain effectively sealed Pakistan's victory by taking the wicket from Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored  in the second Test of the series on the floor of Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi , he took another five-wicket moves in both innings but was unable to avoid a loss. He finished the series with 20 wickets for an average of 20.15, earning him the Man of the Series award.

When Pakistan toured Australia in November 1999, he took 10 wickets in two Test matches, including six wickets for 46 runs at Hobart. He was ineffective in Pakistan's tour to the West Indies in 2000, taking just six wickets in five innings, including five for 121 at the Kensington Oval. His best bowling of his career in one innings came against England at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium in November 2000, in a match in which he won 8 wickets for 164 runs in the first innings. The performance earned him a man-of-the-match award. He was the highest wicket-taker of the series, amassing 18 wickets with an average of 23.94. In the 2001/02 season, Saqlain took seven wickets against Bangladesh. In the 2002/03 season he took 15 wickets at home against Zimbabwe; averaging 21.53, he was the series' highest wicket-taker.

Saqlain played 49 Test matches for Pakistan in 1995 and 2004, amassing 208 wickets with a 29.83 average. He took 13 moves of five wickets and three moves of ten wickets, and his best performance for a match was 10 wickets for 155 runs. As a batter, he hit 927 carries with a 14.48 average, including a century and two fifties. His highest format score was a 101 not against New Zealand at Jade Stadium, Christchurch.

ODI Format

Saqlain started his ODI career on September 29 against Sri Lanka in Gujranwala. He had his best career bowling against England with five wickets for 20 carries. In 1996 he spelled Magic Bowling against New Zealand and scored his first ODI hat trick.

He also put in a crucial performance in the final of the Singers' Cup with three wickets. Saqlain won five wickets six times against Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India and England.

At the 1999 World Cup, he became the first Pakistani bowler to score a hat-trick at the World Cup against New Zealand, and that was his second hat-trick against the same opponent.

His career-best bowling numbers in this format is 5 wickets for 20 runs against England at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in October 2000. He took five wicket hauls in ODIs on six occasions. He notched two hat-tricks, both against Zimbabwe, the first in 1996 and the second in 1999 when he became the first Pakistani to do so at a World Cup.

Retirement

Saqlain Mushtaq retired from international cricket around 2004–05 due to constant injuries and the emergence of other spinners for the national team. He played his last Test in 2004 and his last ODI in 2003.
In domestic cricket, he played his last game for Surrey in 2008 and retired from cricket that same year.

Coaching Career

On 28 May 2016, Saqlain Mushtaq was appointed by the ECB as England's advisor for the home series against Pakistan.

On October 29, 2016, the ECB decided to hire Saqlain's services to prepare the England team for the Test series against India. On 13 November 2016, it was announced that he would remain with the England team until the end of the third test in Mohali, having agreed to extend his contract with the ECB.

On 6 September 2021 he was appointed interim head coach of the Pakistan national cricket team by PCB after Misbah-ul-Haq resigned from his post. In February 2022, his contract was extended by a year due to the excellent performance of the team under him.

Rise to Glory

Saqlain Mushtaq's career was glittering for the time he played. In his time, he broke the world record for being the fastest to reach 100 ODI wickets (which was broken by Australian pacemaker Mitchell Starc).

His big break came in the next Test series against Sri Lanka, where he scored a remarkable 14 wickets in just two Tests. A string of top performances followed, including a nine-wicket win over the West Indies and a five-wicket win over Zimbabwe.

The high point of Mushtaq's career came in a 1999 Test series against India. He recorded his first 10-wicket move in the first Test, which included a second-innings thriller in which Sachin Tendulkar fell for 136 to Mushtaq. In the second Test he took 10 wickets again but was unable to help his team win.

Saqlain's Test career continued on the same path as he won 10 wickets in 2 Tests against Australia in 1999 and 8 wickets against England in 2000.

He has two hat-tricks to his credit, both against Minnows Zimbabwe. He is also the first Pakistani player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup.