Wahab Riaz

Wahab Riaz (Urdu, ; born 28 June 1985) is a Pakistani cricket administrator and former cricketer who is the incumbent chief selector of Pakistan national cricket team, appointed on 17 November 2023, and an advisor to the chief minister of Punjab for sports and youth affairs, in the caretaker government headed by Mohsin Raza Naqvi.

Riaz was a left-arm fast bowler and a right-handed batsman.

Riaz was born on 28 June 1985 in a Punjabi Gujjar family to Muhammad Sikandar Riaz Kasana, who was a businessman.

He was educated at the prestigious Aitchison College, Lahore.

Riaz made his Test debut against England in the third test of the 2010 series.

England batted first and Riaz took 5/63 in the first innings.

In Pakistan's first innings, he came into bat at number 3 and scored 27 runs.

Riaz next played for Pakistan in the Test series against South Africa in October 2010 after he participated in 4 ODIs.

He was selected to play in the first Test later in that series.

He took the wickets of Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla before suffering a side strain later that day and was later ruled out from the test series.

In March 2011, Riaz appeared for Pakistan for four matches.

He performed notably, taking 5 wickets in the Pakistan vs India semi-final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, where he appeared as a replacement for Shoaib Akhtar.

Shortly after the World Cup, Pakistan toured the West Indies for two Tests, five ODIs, and a T20I; Riaz was included in the squad.

He took two wickets in the T20I, in a losing effort, and played in four out of the five ODIs, taking seven wickets at an average of 25.28 and finishing as Pakistan's leading wicket-taker in the series.

In a report to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the team's performance in the West Indies, coach Waqar Younis commented that Riaz had an "average" tour.

In May Pakistan toured Ireland for a two-match ODI series, and although Riaz was included in the squad he did not play a match.

After the tour of Ireland, Riaz entered talks with Kent, eventually signing to play for them in county cricket.

The club had suffered injuries to their fast bowlers and Riaz was drafted in to bolster their line up.

He made his T20 debut for Kent against Glamorgan on 11 June.

He took Chris Cooke's wicket, and guided his team to victory with a final batting score of 32 not out, hitting the winning runs after being sent in up the order.

On his home debut Riaz took a hat-trick – dismissing Chris Taylor, Ed Young, and Richard Coughtrie – and recording figures of 5 wickets for 17 runs (5/17) against Gloucestershire to help his team to an eight-wicket victory.

It was the second time a player had taken a T20 hat-trick for Kent, and was the first time Riaz took five wickets in the format, beating previous best bowling figures of 3/14.

During his spell with Kent Riaz took 13 first-class wickets at an average of 33.53, 9 in list A cricket at 13.33, and 20 wickets in t20 matches at an average of 19.85.

In August, Riaz was awarded a category B central contract with the PCB; six players were in category A, eight (including Riaz) in B, and nine in C. When Pakistan toured Zimbabwe in September, Riaz was rested with the selectors taking the opportunity to blood a number of new and inexperienced players.

Though recalled to the Test squad for the three-match series against Sri Lanka, he did not play in the series and was dropped from the ODI squad to face the same opponents.

Originally rested from the Test team to give younger players a chance, Riaz's hiatus from the squad extended to six months.

His continued absence was not explained by the PCB.

He was recalled to Pakistan's Test squad to face England for three matches in the United Arab Emirates.

While he was out of the side, Riaz played for the National Bank of Pakistan in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.

Before the squad was announced he had taken 30 wickets in the competition at an average of 24.86, and 213 runs at an average of 35.50.

He frequently bowled at speeds of around 90 mph (144.8 km/h) and had reached 96 mph. His all round performance in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 earned him worldwide recognition.

Riaz is married to Zainab Chaudhary and they have three children, two daughters, Eshal (b. 2015) and Hoorain (b. 2020), and a son, Sikandar (b. 2023), named after his late father.

Riaz was chosen in Pakistan's T20I squad for the tri-series in Bangladesh which also included India.

In his first match against Bangladesh, he finished with 3 wickets for 22 runs in 7 overs.

In the next match against India, he took two wickets while conceding 85 runs.

On 30 August 2016, he conceded 110 runs in his stipulated 10 overs, which is the second worst bowling figure ever in ODI cricket.

In August 2018, he was one of 33 players to be awarded a central contract for the 2018–19 season by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

In April 2018, he was named in Punjab's squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup.

In September 2019, Riaz announced that he would be taking a break from red-ball cricket to focus on the shorter formats of the game.

In June 2020, Riaz said he was willing to play Test cricket again, ahead of Pakistan's tour to England.