THE WORLD PORTAL

PRAVEEN KUMAR

The IPL team ‘Royal Challengers Bangalore’ pacer Praveen Kumar attained a great achievement in the third season of the ‘Indian Premier League’(IPL) on yesterday. He gained the first hat-trick of the third edition of the IPL in the match against Rajasthan Royals. His hat-trick was the seventh hat-trick in the history of IPL tournament. In addition to the player of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Praveen Kumar is also a player of the ‘Indian national team’ and ‘Uttar Pradesh domestic cricket team’.

BIOGRAPHY

Praveenkumar Sakat Singh was born 2nd October, 1986 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is a fast-medium pacer, a hard-hitting batsman and an excellent ground fielder. Earlier, he played in the domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh. He gained 90 wickets in his first two domestic seasons. With this performance, he was selected into ‘India A’ team. He was again shined with ‘India A’ team by taking 67 wickets in 39 matches. With his impressive figures in domestic cricket and India A team, he was selected in the India’s national team. His debut international match was against Pakistan in 2007. He gained no wickets in his first two ODI matches, but in the third match, he gained 4 wickets which helped India to defeat Sri Lanka. He  gained four wickets in a winning match against Australia in the final of the 2007-08 CB Series and he was declared as ‘Man of the Match’. He gained 40 wickets in 34 ODI matches. He is one of the best medium pace bowlers of the Indian team and he has the ability to swing the ball both ways along with line and length over speed. Recent times, he also showed keen interest in batting. He is also a player of ‘Royal Challengers Bangalore’ IPL team. He showed wonderful performance in bowling and batting in the second season of the IPL where his team came runners up. In this third season of IPL, he gained first hat-trick of this season in the match against Rajasthan Royals. He gained the wickets of Damein Martyn, Narwal and Dogra of Rajasthan Royals to reach his first hat-trick. In addition, his hat-trick was the seventh hat-trick in the history of IPL tournament.

ZAHEER KHAN

India’s left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan really destroyed the Bangladesh batsmen in their second test against India at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. India won the second test by 10 wickets with the help of Zaheer Khan’s 10 wickets haul. This left-arm seamer gained his career-best 7-87 in the second innings of this test. In the first innings Zaheer gained 5 wickets,  and he finished the match with 10-149 to become only the fourth Indian pace man to take 10 or more wickets in an away Test. India won the first test by 113 runs in Chittagong and with this win, India white washed Bangladesh in the two test match series. Zaheer Khan was named as ‘Man of the Match’ and ‘Man of the Series’ for gaining 15 wickets in the two test matches.

BIOGRAPHY

Left arm fast bowler, Zaheer Khan was born on 7th October, 1978 in Shrirampur, Maharashtra, India. He started his cricket career in 2000 as a player of ‘National Cricket Academy’ in Bangalore. His first Test match was against Bangladesh and first ODI match was against Kenya during the ‘ICC KnockOut Trophy’ in 2000. It is very difficult to retain his position in the Indian team, because other fast bowlers like Sreesanth and R. P. Singh were also included in the team at that time. In ‘2003 Cricket World Cup’, Zaheer along with other fast bowlers Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra helped India to reach in the final, where India lost to Australia. He finished that World Cup as 4th highest wicket taker by gaining 18 wickets. He was out from the team in 2003 and 2004 due to injuries. In 2006, he returned in Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa. He gained his ODI career best 5/42 in 2007, and he was selected for ‘2007 Cricket World Cup’ team with his bowling performance. Zaheer also showed his talent in test matches. He became the third Indian, after Rusi Surti and Kapil Dev, to score a half century and take five wickets in an innings of a test match against Australia in 2008. In addition, he won the ‘Man of the Match’ award in the first test between India and Australia in 2008-2009 season. After that, he became the strike-bowler and a permanent player in the Indian team. He is also a right handed batsmen in Indian team.  He is the holder of the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11, when he gained 75 runs for India against Bangladesh in 2004. His partnership with Sachin Tendulkar which produced 133 runs is an Indian-record for the tenth-wicket. He is played for domestic teams Baroda, Surrey, Worcestershire and Mumbai. In addition, he is played for IPL teams Bangalore Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians.

CAREER STATISTICS

Competition                  Test                  ODIs               FC                    List A
Matches                        70                     168               133                    223
Runs scored                934                     719              1,937                 958
Batting average           13.53                 13.07             14.45                 12.94
100s/50s                     0/3                     0/0                0/4                     0/0
Top score                    75                      34*                75                     42
Balls bowled              13,826                 8,577         27,068                11,165
Wickets                      233                     235               544                   310
Bowling average        33.84                 29.93           27.82                   29.31
5 wickets in innings     9                       42               9/138                   5/42
10 wickets in match     1                      n/a                  7                     n/a
Best bowling             7-87                   5/42             9/138                 5/42
Catches/stumpings     18/–                  35/–                 42/–                 49/–