Mohammad Azharuddin is a former international cricketer who represented and captained the India national cricket team. Considered to be one of the greatest batsman to emerge from Indian cricket, he was well known for his "wristy strokeplay". A right-handed middle order batsman, Azharuddin scored 29 international centuries before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) accused him of match-fixing in 2000, which marked the end of his cricket career. In a career that spanned 15 years, he played 99 Tests and 334 One Day Internationals (ODI) accumulating 6,215 and 9,378 runs respectively. Azharuddin was the first cricketer to score 9,000 runs in ODI cricket and remained the leading run-scorer until October 2000. He was named the "Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year" before being included by Wisden as one of their five Cricketers of the Year in 1991.

Azharuddin made his Test and ODI debuts during England's 1984–85 tour of India. In Tests, he made centuries against all nations except West Indies and Zimbabwe. In his first Test appearance Azharuddin made 110, thus becoming the eighth Indian player to score a century on debut. With scores of 105 and 122 in the subsequent matches of the series, he became the first player to score a century in each of his first three Tests. Azharuddin equalled the record of Kapil Dev for the fastest century by an Indian in Test cricket, when he scored a century from 74 balls against South Africa in 1996. His highest score of 199 came against Sri Lanka at Kanpur in 1986. Azharuddin's 22 Test centuries were made at fifteen cricket grounds, nine of which were outside India. He scored a century in his last Test inningsagainst South Africain March 2000. As of , he is joint thirty-first among all-time century makers in Test cricket, and sixth in the equivalent list for India.

Azharuddin's first ODI century came two years after his debut when he made 108 against Sri Lanka. In 1987, he scored a 62-ball century against New Zealand at the Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara; the performance ensured India's victory and he was made the man of the match. His highest score of 153 not out was achieved in the later part of his career, against Zimbabwe, during which he was involved in a record partnership of 275 with Ajay Jadeja. Azharuddin made scores between 90 and 99 seven times during his ODI career.

Key

+ List of symbols, abbreviations along with their meanings Notation Meaning * Remained not out Captained the Indian cricket team Man of the match Balls Balls faced Pos. Position in the batting order Inn. The innings of the match Test The number of the Test match played in that series S/R Strike rate during the innings H/A/N Venue was at home (India), away or neutral Date Date the match was held, or the starting date of match for Test matches Lost The match was lost by India. Won The match was won by India. Drawn The match was drawn.

Test centuries

+ Test centuries by AzharuddinNo.ScoreAgainstPos.Inn.TestVenueH/A/NDateResult 1 110 5 1 3/5 Eden Gardens, Calcutta Home Drawn 2 105 5 3 4/5 M. A. Chidambaram, Madras Home Lost 3 122 3 1 5/5 Green Park, Kanpur Home Drawn 4 199 5 2 1/3 Green Park, Kanpur Home Drawn 5 141 5 1 2/5 Eden Gardens, Calcutta Home Drawn 6 110 5 1 3/5 Sawai Mansingh, Jaipur Home Drawn 7 109 4 3 2/4 Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad Away Drawn 8 192 5 2 3/3 Eden Park, Auckland Away Drawn 9 121 5 2 1/3 Lord's Cricket Ground, London Away Lost 10 179 5 2 2/3 Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester Away Drawn 11 106 6 4 4/5 Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Away Lost 12 182 5 1 1/3 Eden Gardens, Calcutta Home Won 13 108 5 1 2/3 M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore Home Won 14 152 5 2 3/3 Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad Home Won 15 109 5 2 2/3 Eden Gardens, Calcutta Home Lost 16 163* 6 3 3/3 Green Park Stadium, Kanpur Home Won 17 115 7 2 2/3 Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town Away Lost 18 126 5 1 1/2 R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Away Drawn 19 108* 5 4 2/2 Singhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground, Colombo Away Drawn 20 163* 5 2 2/3 Eden Gardens, Calcutta Home Won 21 103* 6 1 2/2 Basin Reserve, Wellington Away Lost 22 102 5 3 2/2 M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore Home Lost

ODI centuries

+ One Day International centuries by AzharuddinNo.ScoreBallsAgainstPos.Inn.S/RVenueH/A/NDateResult 1 108* 3 1 Wankhede Stadium, Bombay Home Won 2 108* 6 2 Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara Home Won 3 108 4 1 Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah Neutral Lost 4 111* 5 2 R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Away Lost 5 100 3 1 Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka Neutral Won 6 153* 4 1 Barabati Stadium, Cuttack Home Won 7 101 4 1 Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Neutral Lost

Notes

References

External links Player Profile: Mohammad Azharuddin from CricketArchive