ফাওয়াদ আলম

Fawad Alam is one among the many Pakistani openers who made promising starts but failed to kick on to the next level. He made an early start to his first class career at the young age of 17, and some good performances got him selected to Pakistan's under 19 squad for the World Cup.

His biggest break came in the 2006-07 season where he came to the spotlight with excellent performances across formats. He scored heavily in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy and ended the tournament as the fifth highest scorer. In the T20 cup, he bagged various awards including Man of the Final, Man of the Series, Best Batsman and Best Bowler. A national call up was only a matter of time and it arrived after Pakistan's early exit from the 2007 World Cup, where he was selected for the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. However, he had a forgettable debut as he was out for a first ball duck. Fawad was also selected for the World T20 Championship in 2007, but got only one game in the tournament.

He continued to be in and out of the side over the next two years, and finally got his Test call up in 2009. He celebrated it in style with a majestic century in the second innings against Sri Lanka. However, his 168 could not prevent Pakistan from losing the game and he had to share the Man of the Match award with Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara. However, he got only 2 more games in the Test team and was dropped. He was picked again in the ODI squad in the series against South Africa in 2010, but was left out despite scores of 48 and 59* in the series. He was not selected in the Pakistan squad for the World Cup 2011.

Fawad came back with a bang to the ODI side after nearly four years. He was part of the Asia Cup 2014 in Bangladesh, he didn't play the first two games but got his chance against the hosts and he played a match winning innings of 74, he then scored a brilliant hundred in the final but it went in vain as Sri Lanka went on to win the tournament. Pakistan will see this as the second home coming of Fawad as he can deliver with the ball and is also a good fielder.

By Karthik Lakshmanan