Mohammad Azharuddin

Playing his 39th Test, he reached his 10th Test century off 155 Balls.

Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963) is an Indian politician and a former cricketer who also served as the Indian national cricket team's captain.

He was a right-handed middle order batter and an occasional medium fast bowler.

He played 99 Test matches and 334 One Day Internationals for India.

Azharuddin was born on 8 February 1963 in Hyderabad to Mohammad Azizuddin and Yousuf Sultana.

He attended All Saints High School and graduated from Nizam College, Osmania University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Azharuddin made his debut for the Indian cricket team in Test cricket against England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 31 December 1984 scoring 110 in his first innings.

He subsequently scored two more centuries in his next two Test matches in the series.

He was also a part of the Indian squad which won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket.

He made his ODI debut against the visiting England team at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on 20 January 1985 and made an unbeaten 47.

Azharuddin married Naureen in 1987 and they had two sons, Mohammad Asaduddin and Mohammad Ayazuddin.

In 1989, Azharuddin was appointed as the captain of the Indian team succeeding Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

He led the Indian team in 47 Test matches and 174 One Day Internationals.

He led the team to victory in 14 tests and 90 ODIs, both records until surpassed by Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni respectively.

As a captain, he led the team to wins in the 1990-91 and 1995 Asia Cups and reached the semi-finals of the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

He captained India in three Cricket World Cups, the most by any Indian captain, all during the 1990s.

During India's tour of England in 1990, Azharuddin scored 121 in the first test at Lord's in 1990.

Though India lost the match, former England cricketer Vic Marks called it "the most dazzling Test century" he had ever witnessed, in his column for The Observer.

In the second Test in Manchester, Azharuddin scored his tenth century in tests with a 179 runs while putting on a 112-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings.

Azharuddin led India to victory in the 1990–91 Asia Cup beating Sri Lanka in the final.

He scored 54 runs in the final and was awarded the Man of the match award.

Azharuddin led India at the 1992 Cricket World Cup where India were knocked out in the group stage and finished seventh out of nine teams with two wins in eight matches.

India won the 1995 Asia Cup beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in the final where Azharuddin captained the side and won the man of the match scoring runs.

In 1996, he divorced Naureen and married actress Sangeeta Bijlani.

Azharuddin again led the team in the 1996 Cricket World Cup co-hosted by India.

India finished in third place in the group stage, qualifying for the quarter finals where they beat Pakistan by 39 runs to make it to the semi finals.

India lost in the semifinals to Sri Lanka after the match was abandoned mid way due to crowd trouble when India were eight wickets down for 120 runs in response to Sri Lanka's score of 251/8.

During the second test of South Africa's India tour in 1996–97 at Kolkata, Azharuddin scored a century off 74 deliveries equaling Kapil Dev's record for the fastest test century by an India player and fourth overall, in terms of Balls faced.

Azharuddin scored another century in the next test making an unbeaten 163 and helped India record their biggest win in Test history in terms of runs (280) at the time.

He was named the man of the match and the series after aggregating 388 runs at an average of 77.60 Azharuddin scored seven centuries in ODIs with a best of 153 coming against Zimbabwe on 9 April 1998 in Cuttack.

His cricketing career came to an abrupt end in 2000 after he was banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for life due to his alleged involvement in a match fixing scandal.

He scored the last of his 22 centuries in tests against South Africa in Bangalore in March 2000, which also turned out to be the last test match in his career.

In 2009, Azharuddin joined Indian National Congress and was elected as a member of parliament for Moradabad.

After Azharuddin's rumored affairs with multiple people, notably badminton player Jwala Gutta, Sangeeta filed for a divorce in 2010.

His younger son Ayazuddin died in a bike accident in 2011.

In 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the life ban after appeal.

He was appointed as the President of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee in 2018.

Azharuddin ended the series with 426 runs at an average of 85.20 which was the highest tally by an India captain in a test series in England until it was broken by Virat Kohli in 2018.

In September 2019, he was elected as the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association.

His elder son Asaduddin is a domestic cricketer and he married Anam Mirza, the sister of Sania Mirza in 2019.