Mohammad Ashraful

Mohammad Ashraful (মোহাম্মদ আশরাফুল; born 7 July 1984) is a Bangladeshi cricketer, who has represented the Bangladesh men's national team.

Ashraful made his debut on 22 November 2000, playing for the Dhaka Metropolis cricket team.

He opened the batting, scoring 41 and 6; Ashraful also claimed five wickets for 59 runs in the first innings with his leg-spin bowling.

Three days later Ashraful made his list A debut, again playing for Dhaka Metropolis.

Opening the batting, he scored 22 and took two wickets as his team won the match.

Ashraful scored his maiden first-class century in his second match, making 101 against the Khulna cricket team.

Over the course of the 2000–01 season, he played ten first-class matches – scoring 585 runs at an average of 30.78, including two centuries, and taking 39 wickets at an average of 25.48, including three five-wicket hauls.

He also played nine list A matches, scoring 85 runs and taking four wickets.

The seven wickets Ashraful took for 99 runs in a match against Chittagong Division in January 2001 remain his best bowling figures.

Ashraful made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe on 11 April 2001, where he scored only 9 runs and Bangladesh lost the match by 36 runs.

He took his first international wicket in the match, that of Andy Flower.

Ashraful made his Test debut on 6 September 2001 against Sri Lanka.

He scored highest in each inning, and although Bangladesh slumped to an innings defeat, Ashraful scored 114, becoming the youngest player to score a Test century, breaking Mushtaq Mohammad's record.

As a result, he was named man of the match.

Sonargaon Cricketers, a team in the Dhaka Premier League for the 2005–06 season, signed Ashraful and Mohammad Rafique.

The team lost four of its first five games and sought a change of leadership in an attempt to improve its results.

He later played for Rainhill CC in a local cricket league in England.

In November 2006, he set a league record score of 263, against Chittagong Division for Bangladeshi first-class cricket – although this record has since been broken by Raqibul Hasan.

Between 2007 and 2009, Ashraful captained his country in 13 Tests, and 38 One Day Internationals (ODIs) of which Bangladesh won eight.

Ashraful has scored the fastest fifty in Test and ODI for any Bangladeshi cricketer.

Ashraful also played domestic cricket for the Dhaka Division cricket team in Bangladesh's domestic one-day and first-class competitions, captaining both sides on occasion.

On 6 February 2009, Ashraful took part in the player auction for the 2009 Indian Premier League.

The Mumbai Indians bought him for his base price of US$75,000, but he only played one game and scored just 2 runs.

He returned to domestic cricket in 2011, scoring a century for Dhaka Division in the opening match of the National Cricket League.

Dhaka won the one-day competition, and Ashraful, who was the second-highest run-getter with 331 runs, also claimed 7 wickets in 7 matches, and was named player of the tournament.

For the 2011–12 season, the National Cricket League of Bangladesh was expanded from six first-class teams to eight.

Dhaka Metropolis and Rangpur Division were the new teams, with Ashraful captaining the former.

Although he scored his first first-class century in over a year during the competition, Ashraful was dropped from the ODI squad to face Pakistan in December.

During a match in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League in January 2012, Ashraful was involved in an incident with Tamim Iqbal.

This led to the latter being banned for one match and fined.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board founded the six-team Bangladesh Premier League in 2012, a twenty20 tournament that was to be held in February of that year.

The BCB made Ashraful the 'icon player' for the Dhaka Gladiators.

Dhaka won the tournament, and in twelve matches Ashraful scored a total of 258 runs, with an average of 28.66, making him the BPL's second highest run-scorer amongst Bangladeshi batsmen.

During the 2013 Bangladesh Premier League, Ashraful scored 358 runs in 14 matches, with an average of 29.83 per match.

He also scored a century (103* off 58) against the Khulna Royal Bengals.

In 2014 the Bangladesh Cricket Board banned him for eight years after he was found guilty of match fixing.

The ban was later reduced to 5 years with 2 years suspended.

At the end of the suspension, Ashraful returned to playing domestic cricket.

He was the leading run-scorer for Kala Bagan Krira Chakra in the 2017–18 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, with 665 runs in 13 matches.

He was scheduled to play for Minister Group Rajshahi in Bangabandhu T20 cup.