Owais Shah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 England (Eng) |
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 |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Bowling type | Right-arm off-break (OB) | |
| Tests | ODIs | |
| Matches | 1 | 18 |
| Runs scored | 126 | 294 |
| Batting average | 63 | 18.37 |
| 100s/50s | -/1 | -/2 |
| Top score | 88 | 62 |
| Balls bowled | - | - |
| Wickets | - | - |
| Bowling average | - | - |
| 5 wickets in innings | - | - |
| 10 wickets in match | - | n/a |
| Best bowling | - | - |
| Catches/stumpings | 1/- | 6/- |
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As of 4 April 2006 |
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Owais Alam Shah (born 22 October 1978 in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan) is a cricketer who plays for Middlesex and has appeared for England in a number of One-Day Internationals and one Test match.
He made his first-class debut at the age of 17 in 1996 and won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1997. That year and the following season he averaged close to 40, and in 1998 he was captain of the England Under-19 cricket team for their "Test" match series at home against Pakistan. However, two poor seasons followed, and despite being capped in 2000, by the end of that season -- in which he made under 500 first-class runs -- he could no longer command a place in the Middlesex first team. However, he made a dramatic return to form in 2001, averaging 41.60 and making his ODI debut against Australia at Bristol. Later that summer he made 62 against Pakistan, and in 2001 also, Shah was named by the Cricket Writers' Club as their Young Cricketer of the Year.
Despite a fairly solid start to his international career, however, Shah could not produce the required consistency of form, making just one more fifty in ten innings from 2001/02 to 2002/03. He also suffered from a perception that his fielding was below par, something close to unforgivable in the modern one-day game, and he was dropped from the England side without having had a chance at Test cricket. In 2004, a year of success with the bat (1,336 runs at 53.44) was tempered by the loss of his Middlesex captaincy in mid-season after some poor results.
2005 brought much improved returns, as he was top scorer of the First Division of the County Championship with two weeks left to play, having made 1578 runs at an average of 65.75. At the end of the county season in September, Shah was being talked of as a possibility for England's winter tours of Pakistan and India.
He was selected for the England 'A' team tour of the West Indies that winter, but was called up to the squad for the first-team tour of India after England suffered several injuries. He made his Test debut in the third Test at Mumbai on 18 March 2006, making 88 in his first Test innings.
