Happy birthday Mohammad Azharuddin: Here’s a look at some interesting facts about former India captain – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin turns 59 today, 8 February. Born in 1963 in Hyderabad, Azharuddin was famous for his classy flick shots through the on-side and his flamboyant batting style. The former right-hander was one of the pillars of India’s batting unit in the late 1980s and the major part of 90s.

File image of former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Sportzpics

Mohammad Azharuddin is the only captain to lead Team India in three 50-over World Cups. In his 15-year-long international career, the former Indian captain played 334 ODIs and 99 Tests matches. He has scored 9,378 runs in white-ball cricket and 6,215 runs in the longest format.

In 1985, Azharuddin made his international debut against England. He played his final Test match against the Proteas in the year 2000 in Bengaluru. More than just being one of the finest to have played the gentleman’s game, Azharuddin captained the Men in Blue for a long time.

On his 59th birthday, here are some interesting facts about the former India captain:

•    Azharuddin was named the captain of Team India in 1989. He led the team to 90 victories in the 174 ODI matches he captained, making him the second most successful ODI captain after MS Dhoni, in terms of matches won.

•     He scored a century in his very first game while playing for the country as well as in the last Test match of his career.

•    He remains the only player to have scored three consecutive centuries in his first three Tests.

•    Eden Gardens was one of Azharuddin’s favourite grounds. Since his international debut there in 1989, the right-handed batsman scored a total of five centuries there at an average of 107.50.

•    Azharuddin’s best performance has been against England. He has scored 1,278 runs against the team in the 15 Tests he played, with an average of 58.09 runs. The former skipper’s performance against England includes six centuries.

•    Looking into the records of most runs in ODIs, many don’t know that Azharuddin once topped the list. He went past West Indies cricketer Desmond Haynes’ record of most runs back in 1998. The former skipper retired having scored a total of 9,378 runs, making him the Indian player with the most runs at that point of time. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli would go on to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs later.

•    In 2009, Azharuddin joined the Indian National Congress (INC). In the same year, he became a Member of Parliament after winning the Moradabad seat in General Elections.

•    Azharuddin has been honoured with the Arjun Award in 1986 and Padma Shri in 1988 for his contribution towards the game of cricket. Later on in 1991, he was named as Wisden’s Cricket of the Year in 1991.