New Delhi: Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that Indian batsmen he played against scored hundreds for themselves instead of the team while the players from his side were exactly the opposite.
Inzamam was speaking to Ramiz Raja on his Youtube channel, listing the major difference between the two teams during his playing days. “When we played against India, their batting was more powerful than ours on paper.
Even (though) our batsmen scored 30 or 40 runs, they were for the team. But for India, even if they scored 100 runs, they played for themselves,” Inzamam said.
“So, that was the difference between the two sides,” he added.
Inzamam made his debut under the 1992 World Cup-winning captain and current Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and said the way he backed his players even when they were not performing, made him a respected leader. “Imran (bhai) was not a very technical captain, but he knew how to get the most out of his players. He backed the young players, he backed the players he believed in and this made him a great captain,” said the 50-year-old, who scored more than 20,000 runs for Pakistan in his career. “He would not drop any player if he failed in one series as he believed in giving the player a long rope and this the biggest reason why everyone in the side respected him so much.”
During the 1992 World Cup campaign, Inzamam repaid the faith shown on him by scoring a whirlwind 60 off 37 balls against New Zealand in the semifinals. In the final match against England, he scored 42 runs off 35 balls. He was the leading run scorer for Pakistan in one-day internationals, and the third-highest run scorer for Pakistan in Test cricket. He is the only Pakistani batsman to score 20,000 runs in international cricket arena. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team from 2003–07.
As well as being a prolific batsman, he also occasionally bowled gentle left-arm spin.
He remained one of the team’s leading batsmen throughout the decade in both Test and ODI cricket. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the team.
His tenure as captain ended after Pakistan’s early exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Inzamam retired from international cricket in 2007, following the second Test match against South Africa, falling three runs short of Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s leading run scorer in Test cricket at the time.
Following his retirement, he joined the Indian Cricket League, captaining the Hyderabad Heroes in the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 competition. In the ICL’s second edition, he captained the Lahore Badshahs, a team composed entirely of Pakistani cricketers.(PTI)
