Inzamam-ul-Haq played his first Test innings as a 22-year-old, in England in 1992. Though he'd made his mark in the World Cup earlier that year, in his first Test series, he did little to suggest that 13 years later, he'd be recognised as one of the finest batsmen ever to play for Pakistan - the scores in his first series were 8*, 0, 8, 26, 5, 19. Inzamam, however, had Imran Khan's backing, and that faith was soon justified - his first half-century came in his next series, in New Zealand, and four innings after that, in the West Indies, Inzamam made 123, the first of his 20 centuries. The Bangalore Test will be Inzamam's 100th, a feat achieved by 30 others, but only by three other Pakistanis - Javed Miandad, (124), Wasim Akram (104) and Saleem Malik (103). (Click here for Inzamam's career summary.)
Inzamam is easily among the most successful batsmen for Pakistan. Only Javed Miandad has scored more runs and has a better average. (Click here for Pakistan's leading Test batsmen in terms of average.)
Of the 20 hundreds he's scored, 15 of them have led to Pakistani victories. It's an unusually high percentage, and among batsmen with at least 15 centuries, it's been bettered only by Don Bradman and Steve Waugh, while Matthew Hayden and Mark Waugh share the same percentage. In fact, in the top ten, Inzamam and Gordon Greenidge are the only non-Australians.
100s in wins
Total 100s
Percentage
Bradman
23
29
79.31
Steve Waugh
25
32
78.13
Inzamam
15
20
75.00
Hayden
15
20
75.00
Mark Waugh
15
20
75.00
Not surprisingly, Inzamam averages 76.51 in victories, which is fourth-highest among batsmen who have been part of at least 20 wins. And when Pakistan win by an innings, Inzamam's average of 202 is on top of the heap (min. qual: five such wins).
In victories
Tests won
Runs
Average
Bradman
30
4813
130.08
Dravid
28
2926
79.08
Sobers
31
3097
77.42
Inzamam
41
3902
76.51
Greg Chappell
38
3595
70.49
In innings wins
Tests won
Runs
Average
Inzamam
12
1419
202.71
Sobers
11
1345
168.12
Bradman
14
2003
166.92
Samaraweera
7
423
141.00
Gower
7
739
123.17
As the table below shows, Inzamam has also been almost constantly improving his stats. After ten Tests, his numbers were rather modest, but gradually he has pushed up those numbers now to rather imposing levels.
Runs
Average
100s
After 10 Tests
466
31.06
1
After 20 Tests
1174
43.48
3
After 30 Tests
2047
45.48
4
After 40 Tests
2656
45.01
5
After 50 Tests
3139
43.59
6
After 60 Tests
3848
43.23
8
After 70 Tests
4807
46.22
12
After 80 Tests
5600
47.05
15
After 90 Tests
6574
49.42
18
After 99 Tests
7238
48.90
20
As a captain, Inzamam averages 41, which is a fair average, but is almost nine runs less than the corresponding number when he isn't leading the side. The difference is the highest among all captains for Pakistan. These are early days on the job for him, though - he has only done it 12 times - and it's quite likely that the average will climb up by the time he is done.