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, [1] he was well known for his "wristy strokeplay". [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] Azharuddin was the first cricketer to score 9,000 runs in ODI cricket and remained the leading run-scorer until October 2000. [lower-alpha 1] 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. [7] [8]
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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. [lower-alpha 2] In his first Test appearance Azharuddin made 110, thus becoming the eighth Indian player to score a century on debut. [10] 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. [1] [4] 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. [11] 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. [12] He scored a century in his last Test innings—against South Africa—in March 2000. [13] As of December 2023, he is joint thirty-first among all-time century makers in Test cricket, [lower-alpha 3] and sixth in the equivalent list for India. [15]
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; [lower-alpha 4] the performance ensured India's victory and he was made the man of the match. [17] 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. [lower-alpha 5] Azharuddin made scores between 90 and 99 seven times during his ODI career. [19]
