Mohammad Sami

Sami, initially named as the modern Malcolm Marshall by Imran Khan, made his Test cricket debut against New Zealand in 2001 by taking 8 wickets for 106 runs in the match, including five wickets in the second innings.[13] This was a world record for the most wickets by a debutant. During his third Test match he achieved a hat-trick against Sri Lanka and in 2002 he took his second hat-trick in his career, against the West Indies during a One Day International match. This led to him becoming one of only a two bowlers in cricket (the other was Wasim Akram) to achieve this mark in both forms of the game.[14][15] He also displayed excellent performances against Zimbabwe and New Zealand in 2003. On 1 December 2003, he achieved his best bowling figures in One Day International cricket by taking 5 wickets for 10 runs during a match. Earlier in April during that year in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, he had taken 4 wickets for 25 runs against Kenya during the match. Sami played his 50th One Day International match against India at Lahore in Pakistan on 24 March 2004.

He has also taken over 100 wickets in First-class cricket and in List A cricket.

Sami also earned the ignominy of bowling the longest over in One Day International cricket during the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh in 2004, when he bowled 17 balls in one over which consisted of seven wides and four no-balls.[16] He is also the only bowler in Test cricket history to have over 50 wickets and a bowling average of 50.[17]

After losing form and failing to achieve success for the Pakistan cricket team, the Pakistan Cricket Board and its national selectors replaced Sami for the One Day International series against England with fast bowler Mohammad Asif, however he was recalled for the series against South Africa in January and February in 2007. He was selected in the 15-man Pakistan squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, although he was named as one of five reserves.[18] After teammates Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were dropped from the World Cup squad, since neither of the two had been declared fit and they had not undergone official doping tests, Sami and Yasir Arafat were called up as replacements.[19]

In 2009–2010, he was recalled back to the Pakistan team and on 3 January 2010, during Pakistan's Test match series against Australia, he played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia and took 3 wickets for 27 runs in the first innings of the second Test match. On 19 April he was selected in the Pakistan squad as a replacement for the injured fast bowler Umar Gul,[20][21] in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament to be held in the West Indies.

Sami was recalled and played against South Africa in the middle east in November 2010. In May 2012 Sami received another recall and was announced in the squad that toured Sri Lanka in June 2012, because of his amazing performances in the Bangladesh premier league (which included a hat trick and a 5-wicket haul). He bowled brilliantly in the 2nd T20I.

Following that, in the 1st ODI he bowled economically and with pace, which earned him a place in the 15-man squad to play the touring Australians and also the 2012 ICC World Twenty20. Sami was selected for these international tours, but didn't get to play an official game (he got to play two warm up matches), as Pakistan made it to the semi-finals, but lost to Sri-lanka.

In May 2015, Sami was selected for the T20I side that is going to play Zimbabwe in Lahore. This happened after impressive performances in the Faysal Bank T20I cup. Sami made comeback in the home series against Zimbabwe. In his comeback match, Mohammad Sami took three wickets for Pakistan. Sami has been included in Pakistan squad for the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 as a result of strong performances in the BPL, the PSL & the Asia Cup where he bowled accurately at more than 140 km/h on a consistent basis.[22]