Zaheer Khan is a left arm fast bowler in Indian cricket scenario. He was born on 7 October 1978 in the town of Shrirampur in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. He is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways. He also holds the record for the highest Test score by a No. 11 batsman. He has been a pioneer in the art of reverse swing bowling. Zaheer Khan announced his retirement from international and first class cricket on 15th October 2015.

Career of Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan was selected in the year 2000 in the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He made his Test debut against Bangladesh at Dhaka. He debuted in One Day International against Kenya at Nairobi during the ICC Knock out Trophy in the same year.

After the debut of Sreesanth and R. P. Singh in late 2005 it became difficult for Zaheer to retain his position in the Indian team. He was also demoted from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year.

In Indian domestic cricket, Zaheer made his name playing for Vadodara, but transferred to Mumbai at the start of the 2006-07 Indian cricket season his debut for Mumbai until the final of the Ranji Trophy in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeated Bengal.

In 2006 Zaheer signed for Worcestershire County Cricket Club as their second overseas player as a replacement for Australian Nathan Bracken. He became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets in a match on debut for over 100 years against Somerset, even though Worcestershire eventually lost the game. In June 2006 he took the first nine wickets to fall in the first innings against Essex, ending with 9-138; had wicket-keeper Steven Davies not dropped a catch offered by last man Darren Gough he would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the county.

In late 2006, Zaheer was retained in the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa. His performance in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka was commendable. One of his best performances was 5/42 that saw him named in the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He got the Man of the Match award in the first test between India and Australia in 2008-2009 series. He became the third Indian to score a half century and take five wickets in an innings in this series after Rusi surti and Kapil Dev. He also won the Man of the Match award in the T20 World cup 2009 against Ireland. He took 4 wickets by giving only 19 runs.

In the 2003 World cup he was the 4th highest wicket taker - 18 wickets from 11 matches at an average of 20 runs per wicket. He was the basis of Indian bowling attack during the side`s victorious Cricket World Cup 2011. He has taken over 250 Test wickets at an average of just over 33 runs per wicket. He also holds the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 batsman when he scored 75 for India v Bangladesh in Dhaka in the year 2004. His batting average of 19.46 at number 10 is also the highest for a batsman in ODIs. Zaheer Khan is the 5th Indian to achieve more than 250 wickets in ODIs.

Cricket Statistics of Zaheer Khan

Batting and Fielding Averages of Zaheer Khan