On This Day: September 20, 1968 - Pakistan batter Ijaz Ahmed was born

[Sakss]

Ijaz played 60 Tests and 250 ODI's for Pakistan.

He was also very famous for his fielding at point.

 

[KB]

Interesting player Ijaz. Not very consistent and someone whose nervousness at the start of his innings was especially visible. But when he was in top form he could be quite dangerous.

One of only two batsman that I have have ever seen get bowled 'around his legs' that lost, not his leg stump, but his middle stump!

 

[Bhaijaan]

Remember him as a gum chewing batsmen with a lot of attitude on his face.

 

[Mamoon]

The axeman was as brutal as anyone on his day, and the way he demolished Indian trundlers in Lahore in 1997 will forever be etched in the memory of every Pakistani, as well as Mohanty, Kuruvilla and Kulkarni. Also liked a challenge, and the likes of Australia brought the best out of him.

However as mentioned already, he was too inconsistent for someone who was occupying the all important number 3 position, and he was a very nervous starter. His famous 'nod' after getting squared up early in his innings was legendary.

That Pakistan team of the 90's could have achieved a lot more if it had the services of a world class number 3, to complement the successful opening pair of Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail and the formidable middle-order of Inzamam and Salim Malik, coupled with Rashid Latif, Moin Khan and a brilliant bowling attack of course.

Ijaz was a liability in this team if you look at his consistency and not just his peaks.

 

[larkykid]

The axeman was as brutal as anyone on his day, and the way he demolished Indian trundlers in Lahore in 1997 will forever be etched in the memory of every Pakistani, as well as Mohanty, Kuruvilla and Kulkarni.

That certainly was a memorable phainty.

 

[ExplicitAI]

Underrated batsman who decimated a few teams in his career.

 

[Smiling Creed]

His stance was somewhat peculiar.... bat between both feet

Sent from my LG-H502 using Tapatalk

 

[umarf76]

The mad axeman! Dont forget his fielding at a time when fielding standards were relatively poor. Those as old as me would remember his one hand run out of Mike Gatting in the 1987 world cup. Bullet throw and one handed pick up.

Other than the Lahore massacre he hammered the indians in one of canada 5 game series match.

 

[miandadrules]

Interesting player Ijaz. Not very consistent and someone whose nervousness at the start of his innings was especially visible. But when he was in top form he could be quite dangerous.

One of only two batsman that I have have ever seen get bowled 'around his legs' that lost, not his leg stump, but his middle stump!

I remember that. He hit his left leg with the middle of the bat.

He was a liability at 3 and had a habit of scoring just as he was about to be dropped, usually in a dead rubber.

 

[ChachaCricket]

Our best batsman in Australia.

 

[ChachaCricket]

The axeman was as brutal as anyone on his day, and the way he demolished Indian trundlers in Lahore in 1997 will forever be etched in the memory of every Pakistani, as well as Mohanty, Kuruvilla and Kulkarni. Also liked a challenge, and the likes of Australia brought the best out of him.

However as mentioned already, he was too inconsistent for someone who was occupying the all important number 3 position, and he was a very nervous starter. His famous 'nod' after getting squared up early in his innings was legendary.

That Pakistan team of the 90's could have achieved a lot more if it had the services of a world class number 3, to complement the successful opening pair of Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail and the formidable middle-order of Inzamam and Salim Malik, coupled with Rashid Latif, Moin Khan and a brilliant bowling attack of course.

Ijaz was a liability in this team if you look at his consistency and not just his peaks.

You're exaggerating. Sohail was quite mediocre. Malik pleasing on the eye but hardly consistent enough to call our middle order formidable. Inzi and Anwar were the only two we could rely upon.

Though you're right in that a gun #3 could've hid our shortcomings.

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

The sledgehammer. Look at those steely eyes. We just don't make them like this anymore.

 

[Mamoon]

You're exaggerating. Sohail was quite mediocre. Malik pleasing on the eye but hardly consistent enough to call our middle order formidable. Inzi and Anwar were the only two we could rely upon.

Though you're right in that a gun #3 could've hid our shortcomings.

Aamer was better than what his statistics reveal, and partnerships are more important. Yes we could have done with a Saeed Anwar close, but this was a formidable opening partnership nonetheless.

Salim Malik was good. 33 @76 was is a very decent ODI record for a batsman of his generation and he was a fine Test batsman.

I would say that he did underachieve however.

 

[Abdullah719]

Turns 49 today!

 

[Junaids]

Really good in Aussie conditions.

Like Waqar Younis, seems to have been born at the age of around five.

 

[The_Odd_One]

Ijazz became a much better player post 1993.

From 1994 to 2000 when he retired, Ijazz averaged almost 38 at 80 SR in ODIs. These are very good numbers for an ODI batsman of the 90s. During the same period, he averaged 41 in tests with averages of 44 in Australia and 69 in England.

Ijazz in this era would have been a top T20 opening batsman.

 

[giri26]

Turns 50 today!

 

[Amjid Javed]

Quite a few hundreds in Australia as he one of few pakistan batsmen to relish the pace and bounce in wickets.

His 100 at headingly in 1996 also sticks in mind as a quality knock.

ODI wise the way he butcher indian bowlers like throwing life stock into the blades of a helicopter were a joy to watch live in lahore.

He was ugly at the crease and his dimissal in 1st test at lords in 1996 is porbably most comical thing ive ever seen.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> 1968. Ijaz Ahmed was born in Sialkot. He played 310 matches for Pakistan, making 9879 runs with 22 hundreds and 49 fifties <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/yQWbTSrcDx">pic.twitter.com/yQWbTSrcDx</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1174985116730494976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Abdullah719]

52 today.

 

[sweep_shot]

Ijaz was a fantastic ODI player. He was never that good in Test though.

 

[Zaz]

Ijaz was a fantastic ODI player. He was never that good in Test though.

He was pretty good in both formats post 1994 for about 5 years

Centuries against most teams including the great aussie team of the late 90s

His esrly poor career is what dragged his overall stats down

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 1968. Ijaz Ahmed was born in Sialkot. He played 310 matches for Pakistan, making 9879 runs with 22 hundreds and 49 fifties <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/e6DlL7WUzB">pic.twitter.com/e6DlL7WUzB</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1439853284328714243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[IMMY69]

1968????

You've got to be kidding me

 

[Mamoon]

Yes, he was certainly not 33 when he played his last match for Pakistan.

 

[sweep_shot]

He was fun to watch when he was on song.

I remember his brutal 139* against India.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 1968. The unorthodox but effective Ijaz Ahmed was born in Sialkot. He played 310 matches for Pakistan, making 9879 runs with 22 hundreds and 49 fifties <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/65up0zBbgK">pic.twitter.com/65up0zBbgK</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1572139580304011266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[ezhil]

That brutal 139 in my childhood...India didn't or couldn't pay back yet ....

 

[BouncerGuy]

Happy Birthday to one of the finest fielders of Pakistan. Ijaz Ahmed

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837034826152472882

 

[mominsaigol]

Happy Birthday to one of the finest fielders of Pakistan. Ijaz Ahmed

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837034826152472882

I find it hilarious people claim Babar > him, Ijaz would have murdered the west indies, Zimbabwe and Sri lanka bowling that Babar had to deal with.

However ijaz underachieved sadly, For me he was the fakhar zaman of the past an extremely nervous starter and would get dismissed for scores under 10 more times then afridi even. But when insong it was game over for the opposition.

Averaging 50 against australia and west indies of that era in his prime in test is no small feat, but overall he underachieved, someone of his caliber could have gone down as the greatest no 3 pakistan ever had if only he maintained the same level of consistency against australia and west indies in test against other oppositions as well as during his odi career.

Still he wipes the floor with any of the current joke lot we have

 

[Savak]

Ijaz is miles better than a lot of players playing in the current Pakistani team.

 

[mominsaigol]

Ijaz is miles better than a lot of players playing in the current Pakistani team.

He's better then all of them. Ijaz underachieved and was born in an era without any social media so he was never glorified, to top it off he was unfortunate enough to be playing with batters that were superior to him like saeed Anwar.

Babar, rizwan and imam come from an era where batting is easier and they've benefitted from club bowling bashing exploits from teams such as West Indies, Sri lanka amd Zimbabwe, their all sitting ducks against afghanistan, Bangladesh (Rana and hasan mahmud), Australia, India etc etc, these 3 are just lucky that they live in a social media era ans the rest of the lot is crap so they get overglorified. Misbah ul haq was the same.

The truth is Ijaz Averaged 50 against West Indies, England and Australia in the first half of his career in their own den, ans by the 2nd half the avg fell a bit. In odi he was a genuine axeman when on song. He underachieved sadly due to his inconsistency but overall is miles superior to anyone in the current setup

 

[Savak]

He's better then all of them. Ijaz underachieved and was born in an era without any social media so he was never glorified, to top it off he was unfortunate enough to be playing with batters that were superior to him like saeed Anwar.

Babar, rizwan and imam come from an era where batting is easier and they've benefitted from club bowling bashing exploits from teams such as West Indies, Sri lanka amd Zimbabwe, their all sitting ducks against afghanistan, Bangladesh (Rana and hasan mahmud), Australia, India etc etc, these 3 are just lucky that they live in a social media era ans the rest of the lot is crap so they get overglorified. Misbah ul haq was the same.

The truth is Ijaz Averaged 50 against West Indies, England and Australia in the first half of his career in their own den, ans by the 2nd half the avg fell a bit. In odi he was a genuine axeman when on song. He underachieved sadly due to his inconsistency but overall is miles superior to anyone in the current setup

Imran in the first half of his career only kept Ijaz in the team because of his fielding and hitting out at the death, he was never under pressure to improve his batting average. Once Imran left Ijaz was dropped and he realized he had to up his batting performances to get recalled into the team and he did that from 1994 onwards.