A gun in Beautiful Hands

Miss Sumeera

Miss Rabia

Hashim Amla

Full name Hashim Muhammad Amla

Born March 31, 1983, Durban, Natal

Current age 29 years 102 days

Major teams South Africa, Dolphins, Essex, KwaZulu-Natal

Playing role Top-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium, Right-arm offbreak

Relation Brother - AM Amla

Hashim Muhammad Amla's Profile

An elegant strokeplayer blessed with the temperament to make the most of his talent, Hashim Amla is the first South African of Indian descent to reach the national squad - his grandparents migrated from Gujarat - and he shares the penchant for wristy leg-side flicks that ooze off his bat. His elevation to the South Africa side was a poorly kept secret after he reeled off four centuries in his first eight innings of the 2004-05 season, after being appointed captain of the Dolphins (formerly Natal) at the tender age of 21. His older brother by four years, Ahmed, made his first-class debut two seasons before Hashim, but there is little doubt that the younger Amla is the better player. He is also a devout Muslim whose requests to have logos promoting alcohol removed from his playing gear have been successful so far. Amla toured New Zealand with the South African Under-19 team in 2000-01, he captained South Africa at the 2002 Under-19 World Cup, and after starring for the A team, made his Test debut against India in 2004-05. He was not an instant success, with serious questions emerging about his technique as he mustered 36 runs in four innings against England later that season. 

 

 When he was handed a second chance he made it count with 149 against New Zealand at Cape Town, helping guide South Africa to a draw. He remained a consistent performer, if not as prolific as South Africa would like, with fifties against Pakistan in 2007, but saved his best for the following tour to India where he racked up 307 runs in the three Tests. It included a majestic 159 in Chennai, his second score of 150 or more, and was followed by a pugnacious 81 in the second innings, in conditions trying thanks to the weather, the pitch and the attack. In the summer of 2008, he got his name on the honours board at Lord's with a sublime century, and in the process silenced all whimpers about his pedigree for the longest version. Still, doubts remained over his ability in the shorter formats, and while Twenty20 cricket was never going to be his strong point, he developed a remarkable appetite for ODI excellence, when given an extended run in the side. He contributed crucial fifties during South Africa's heist of Australia in 2008-09, but his inability to convert them into big knocks meant the likes of AB de Villiers and JP Duminy stole the headlines. Amla righted that with a couple of big scores in the ODI series that followed, as Australia were humbled in all formats at home. A consistent run of scores followed before a strong home series against England.

 

His biggest year in international cricket, though, was in 2010, when he was outstanding in both Tests and ODIs, scoring over 1000 runs in both forms at 75-plus averages. It started with a magnum opus tour of India, where the hosts threw everything at him, but could not find a way past or around his monk-like patience and ability to soak pressure. In the two-Test series he scored 490 runs and dismissed just once. In ODIs he combined quick scoring with stunning consistency, scoring five centuries and four fifties in 15 innings, all the while scoring at over a run a ball. With his consistency and skills in both forms of the game, Amla is already looked upon as Jacques Kallis' successor in the role of middle-order bulwark.

A quiet man, there is no doubting Amla's immense hunger for runs. He remains a candidate to become South Africa's second non-white Test captain after Ashwell Prince, and possesses the most impressive beard in all the game. 

 

 

 

Amber Khan

Brent Arnel

Full name Brent John Arnel

Born January 3, 1979, Te Awamutu, Waikato

Current age 33 years 187 days

Major teams New Zealand, Northern Districts

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Brent Arnel's Profile

As a 10-year-old, Brent Arnel was kicked out of junior cricket because he bowled too fast and he was soon up against college-level players. Being pushed into the deep end so early, he recalls, helped him in the long run. Arnel is a product of a small-town upbringing, but access to facilities was never a problem because his parents owned a few indoor cricket schools in the area. It later came down to a choice between a career in cricket or basketball but he chose the former when Northern Districts came calling. He made his debut in the 2006-07 season, playing four games, but his best performance was reserved for the following season. Arnel topped the wicket charts in the State Championships with 33 wickets and his performance earned him a place in the New Zealand A squad for the tour of India. His impressive performances for the A squad against the England Lions in 2009 led to a call-up to the New Zealand Test squad against India. He didn't get a game, but earned another Test call-up the following year, against Bangladesh, as a replacement for the injured Andy McKay.

Varun Aaron

Full name Varun Raymond Aaron

Born October 29, 1989, Singhbhum, Bihar (now Jharkhand)

Current age 22 years 252 days

Major teams India, Australian Centre of Excellence, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils, India Emerging Players, Jharkhand, Jharkhand Under-19s, Kolkata Knight Riders

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Varun Aaron's Profile

In a country starved of genuinely quick bowlers, Varun Aaron grabbed the headlines when he hit 153 kph during the 2010-11 Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Gujarat. Hailing from Jharkhand, Aaron has been part of the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai since he was spotted by a talent scout at the age of 15. In his first year with the Jharkhand Under-19 side, he also played for East Zone and was later part of the India Under-19 camp. He grew up admiring Andy Roberts, and pace has been his focus since his teens. This led to two stress fractures of the back soon after he made his Ranji Trophy debut in the 2008-09 season for Jharkhand, but he continues to focus on bowling quick. Possessing a smooth run-up and a repeatable action, Aaron consistently bowls in excess of 140 kph from close to the stumps with decent control. Having earlier been part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad, he made his IPL debut in 2011 for Delhi Daredevils.

 He was part of the India Emerging Players squad that went to Australia in 2011, and after impressing there earned a call-up to the India ODI squad for the series in England. Though he did not get a game on that trip, he made his India debut in Mumbai, when England went over to the subcontinent for a return ODI series in October 2011. He made his Test debut a month later, against West Indies, also in Mumbai.

James Anderson

Full name James Michael Anderson

Born July 30, 1982, Burnley, Lancashire

Current age 29 years 341 days

Major teams England, Auckland, England Under-19s, Lancashire, Lancashire Cricket Board

Nickname Jimmy

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Height 6 ft 2 in

Education St Theodore's RC High School; St Theodore's RC Sixth Form Centre - Burnley

  James Michael Anderson's Profile

For the first six years of James Anderson's international career, the best way to sum up his bowling was to paraphrase Mother Goose: when he's good, he's very, very good - and when he's bad he's horrid. Well, fairly horrid, anyway, because when the force was with him, he was capable of irresistible spells, seemingly able to swing the ball round corners at an impressive speed. 

In 2010 however, Anderson came of age in a staggeringly comprehensive fashion. No longer content with being unplayable when the mood caught him, he took the decision to shelve the "magic balls" and concentrated on hammering out a rock-solid line and length, with dot balls and maidens his new holy grail. The upshot was a scintillating year in which he proved unhittable in every sense, with an economy rate that ramped up the pressure in every spell, and a range of weapons that made him a threat on every surface he was presented with.

A career-best 11-wicket haul against Pakistan at Trent Bridge was the prelude to a coming-of-age tour of Australia in the winter of 2010-11. Anderson arrived to a torrent of doubters, who recalled his forlorn performance on the preceding Ashes four years earlier, in which he had taken five wickets at 82.60. But he left with a series-sealing 24 scalps at 26.04, and a reputation transformed. Deadly with conventional swing and seam, and with a new line in reverse swing as well, he had become arguably the most complete fast bowler in the world.

It had been a long journey to fulfilment. Anderson had played only three one-day games for Lancashire when he was hurried into England's one-day squad in Australia in 2002-03 as cover for Andy Caddick. He didn't have a number - or even a name - on his shirt, but a remarkable ten-over stint, costing just 12 runs, in century heat at Adelaide earned him a World Cup spot. There, he produced a matchwinning spell against Pakistan before a sobering last-over disaster against Australia.

Five wickets followed in the first innings of his debut Test, against Zimbabwe at home in 2003, then a one-day hat-trick against Pakistan ... but then his fortunes waned. For a couple of years Anderson was a peripheral net bowler. A stress fracture kept him out for most of 2006, but he still made the Australian tour and the World Cup. And suddenly, in the absence of the entire Ashes-winning attack in the second half of 2007, Anderson looked the part of pack leader again.

New Zealand were blown away in Nottingham in 2008 (Anderson 7 for 43); the following May the West Indians looked clueless in Chester-le-Street (nine wickets in the match); and back at Trent Bridge in 2010 Pakistan's inexperienced batsmen could hardly lay a bat on him (5 for 54 and 6 for 17).

Anderson's left-hand batting has also steadily improved from his early days as a fully paid-up rabbit: one of his unlikelier landmarks was going 54 Test innings before collecting a duck, an England record. At Cardiff in 2009 he survived for 69 nail-chewing minutes to help stave off defeat by Australia. He is also a superb fielder.

Abdur Razzak

Full name Abdur Razzak

Born June 15, 1982, Khulna

Current age 30 years 19 days

Major teams Bangladesh, Asia XI, Khulna Division, Royal Challengers Bangalore

Also known as Raj

Playing role Bowler

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox

Abdur Razzak's Profile

The latest in Bangladesh's seemingly never-ending supply of left-arm spinners, Abdur Razzaq (no relation to the similarly named Pakistan allrounder) made his mark when he helped unheralded Khulna to their first-ever National Cricket League title in 2001-02.

Tall, with a high action, he was also instrumental in Victoria Sporting Club's surprise triumph in the 2002-03 Dhaka Premier Division. He was given his A-team debut during the five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe early in 2004, and took the opportunity well with 15 wickets, including a matchwinning 7 for 17 in the third encounter on the batting paradise of Dhaka's Bangabandhu National Stadium.

He has an uncanny ability to pin batsmen down, although the position of his bowling arm during delivery is a worry, and his action has been reported in the past. Bangladesh's coaching staff are using video technology to help iron out anything suspicious. He took 3 for 17 on his one-day debut against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup in Colombo in 2004, but was reported for a suspect action after the next match, against Pakistan.

Left out of the Champions Trophy in England later that year, "Raj" played just one ODI - against Zimbabwe in January 2005 - before he was recalled for the home series against Sri Lanka in February 2006. He made his Test debut two months later, called up for the second Test against Australia on a turning track at Chittagong (even the Aussies played three spinners), but failed to take a wicket. He has, however, become a regular in the one-day team and his parsimonious left-arm spin was effective in the Champions Trophy in October. Razzak achieved his career-best figures of 5 for 33 against Zimbabwe in December 2006.

In 2008 he was reported for a suspect action again and this time an independent analysis found that he bent his arm up to 28 degrees - 13 more than the permissible limit. He was suspended from bowling in international cricket. The ICC cleared him the following year and soon after, was picked for the World Twenty20 in England.

Ileana Shakti