Mohammad Azharuddin Biography | Family | Career | Controversy

Mohammad Azharuddin Biography:

Mohammed Azharuddin is one of the most controversial cricketers that have ever played the game of cricket. People used to say that he used to have golden wrists as he used to flick the ball in between mid-wicket and square leg, which is considered as the perfect flick shot in the game of cricket. He was also one of the most successful Indian captains. Apart from that, he was also one of the best fielders in India.

This is the journey of Mohammed Azharuddin is fully covered in Mohammad Azharuddin Biography.

Mohammed Azharuddin Family:

He was born on 8^th February 1963 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana). He was the only son of Mohammed Azizuddin and Yousuf Sultana. He is one of those cricketers who completed his studies and then started playing International cricket. He went to All Saints High school in Hyderabad and graduated from Nizam College, Osmania University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Azhar got married to Naureen in 1987 and had 2 children with her named Mohammed Asaduddin and Mohammed Ayazuddin. After they got separated, he got married to a popular actress/model Sangeeta Bijalani in 1996, but, unfortunately, this marriage only lasted till 2010.

Mohammed Azharuddin Career:

Mohammed Azharuddin is a former Indian cricketer and now is a politician, and he is well known for his classic middle-order batting style for the men in Blues, and also in his career he has led the team in 47 test matches and in 174 ODI matches.

Early career:

The passion for cricket in Azhar was recognized by his grandfather since his childhood. Azhar started his career as a seaming fast bowler but started playing at No. 3 as he progressed in his career, besides being a 3^rd seamer too for All Saints school as they used to play in South Zone. He was a gem of a player and his career started developing quickly, as he debuted in first-class cricket when he was 18 years old in 1981/82 seasons of Ranji Trophy.

Mohammed Azharuddin career took a turn when he scored an elegant double hundred playing for South Zone in 1984 and he was selected to play for the Under-25 tour of Zimbabwe.

The story of Azharuddin can be defined in one famous quote: “Someone’s loss is another one’s gain”. It was later that year when England was touring India. India had won the first match but England leveled the series in the Second Test. In the Third Test, Kapil Dev was dropped contentiously and Azharuddin had replaced Sandeep Patil. He got the biggest chance to play Test match cricket for India and the rest is history.

Test Career:

It was the Third Test of the series and India in the 1^st innings was struggling at 127/4 with two young talents on the crease- Mohammed Azharuddin and Ravi Shastri. They both stitched a classical 214 run partnership as both of them scored a remarkable century. Azharuddin in his debut match scored 110 runs off 322 balls with absolute class and finesse against a strong England bowling line up.

Mohammed Azharuddin India debut was made in a test match against England at the Eden Gardens where he struck a wonderful ton and also score two more centuries in Consecutive matches in Chennai and in Kanpur, The world cricket had never seen an arrival like this by such a young talent. Nobody had ever achieved the feat of scoring 3 consecutive centuries in the first 3 Test matches. Everyone knew that he is here to stay and is going to become one of India’s finest cricketers.

Like every cricketer, Mohammed Azharuddin cricketer also had to go through a dry face which came for him immediately after his 3 consecutive centuries, as he to wait close to 11 months for his next century which came against Sri Lanka at Green Park, Kanpur. After that, he kept on scoring consistently and permanently cemented his place in the Indian Cricket Team.

Later, in 1989, when India toured New Zealand, Mohammed Azharuddin was given the captaincy as the successor of Krishnamachari Srikanth. Even though, India lost the series 1-0, the potential of becoming a great captain was still there within Azharuddin.

He led the Indian Cricket Team from 1989-1999, except some matches between 1996 and 1998 where Sachin Tendulkar captained the National team. Azharuddin went on to become the most successful captain of India at that time, the record which was broken by Sourav Ganguly and then Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

One of the finest knocks from Azharuddin came against England in 1990 at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester. Sachin Tendulkar was awarded as Man of the Match as India drew against England but, it would not have been possible without Mohammed Azharuddin’s classy 179 to save India from follow-on in the first innings.

Interestingly, Mohammed Azharuddin has never scored a double century in Test matches. He came close against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, where he scored 192 and 199 respectively. Azharuddin scored 8 centuries as a captain of the Indian Test team.

It was Azharuddin’s dream to play 100 Test matches for India which was not fulfilled as he played 99 Test matches for India where he scored 6215 runs including 22 centuries and 21 half-centuries with an average of 45.04. He captained India in 47 Test matches where he won 14 of them, which was later beaten by Sourav Ganguly as he won 21 Test matches as an Indian captain.

Mohammed Azharuddin played his last Test match against South Africa in 2000 where he scored 102 runs at M.Chinaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

ODI career:

Soon after his blistering Test debut against England, he was given the chance to play ODI cricket too. Mohammed Azharuddin ODI debut was made England only in 1985 where he scored a fast 47 off 37 balls but could not save India from losing the match. But he scored his first ODI century 2 years after his debut though, he scored a brilliant 93 not out against Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

His first One Day International century came against Sri Lanka in 1987 at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay. The problem with Mohammed Azharuddin in One Day International cricket was his consistency. He was never able to convert those starts into big scores on a regular basis.

The century graph of Azhar in One Day cricket has not been that great, the primary reason being his batting position which was never the same and kept on changing continuously. He scored only 7 centuries in One Day cricket in his 15-year long career.

But, he played some crucial knocks for India in One Day cricket during his playing days. No Indian cricket fan would ever forget Azharuddin’s most stylish innings of 94 against Australia in 1996 in the Titan Cup. It was a very important knock as India was struggling at 95/3 and he structured a brilliant partnership with Rahul Dravid as India won the match by 5 runs.

Another brilliant knock of 95 not out against England was by far his best One Day International knock to date. India was batting second and had to chase a target of 266, but wickets kept on falling from one end but Azharuddin was fighting and smashing against the English bowlers. He scored 95 runs off just 63 balls and led India to a 4 wicket victory against England. Interestingly, after scoring a hundred in 1990, a man of Azhar’s stature had to wait for 7 years to score his next century.

But, his batting form never affected his captaincy, which was given to him soon after the New Zealand tour. He led India in 174 One Day Internationals and won 90 One Days. This was the most successful record in One Day cricket by any Indian captain until Mahendra Singh Dhoni broke the record in 2014.

Azharuddin played 334 One Day matches for India where he scored 9378 runs including 7 centuries and 58 half-centuries with the highest score of 153 not out scored against Zimbabwe in 1998.

He played his last One Day International match against Pakistan in June 2000 where he got out for 1 run.

World Cup cricket:

Mohammed Azharuddin also led India in 3 World Cups (1992, 1996 and 1999) but, unfortunately never reached a final in these three World Cups. It was a bad start for Azharuddin when he was leading India in World Cups for the first time in 1992. India failed to qualify for the Semi-Finals as they lost 5 matches won 2 and there was no result in 1 match, Mohammed Azharuddin World cup records for the men in Blues are decent enough.

India in the 1996 World Cup under, Mohammed Azharuddin captaincy played well to qualify for the Quarter Finals. After beating the arch-rivals Pakistan in the Quarter Final, India lost to Sri Lanka in a controversial match because India was chasing the target of 252 but kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and seeing such a dismal performance from India, the crowd of Kolkata got out of hand and started burning things in the stadium and the match was interrupted. India was 120/8 and Sri Lanka went through to the Finals as Sri Lanka was declared winners by default.

The Final World Cup led by Azhar was the 1999 Cricket World Cup. It was not a memorable one for India or Mohammed Azharuddin as India failed to qualify in the Semi-Finals as they lost to Australia and New Zealand in Super 8s.

Records of Mohammed Azharuddin (Until his last match):

• India’s most successful Test captain as he won 14 Tests out of 47 in which he captained (Now-Virat Kohli 33 wins in 55 matches).
• Highest catches in One Day cricket -156 (Now- Mahela Jayawardene with 218 catches but still Azhar is 3^rd in the list).
• Most appearances in One Day Cricket- 334 (Now- Sachin Tendulkar 463 matches).
• India’s most successful One Day captain- 90 wins (Now-M.S. Dhoni with 104 wins).
• The highest run-getter in ODIs- 9378 (Now- Sachin Tendulkar with 18426).

Controversies, Facts, and Famous incidents of Mohammed Azharuddin:

• He is the only batsman in cricket history to score 3 consecutive hundreds in his first 3 matches
• Azharuddin has a fantastic record at the Eden Gardens starting from his 110 on Test debut in 1984-85. In all, he played seven Tests at the venue, scoring 860 runs at an average of 107.50, with five tons and two fifties. He failed to get a fifty-plus score in only one Test.
• Azharuddin is the only Indian captain to have led the side in three World Cups. He captained India in 1992, 1996 and 1999
• Azharuddin is one of the few batsmen to have started and ended their careers with a century in Test cricket.
• Azharuddin who was a flamboyant and classy player and a thorough entertainer was losing his charm against a newcomer Sachin Tendulkar, who was starting to look better and better every day. Azharuddin even lost his captaincy to the 23-year-old and that led to a big rift between Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin.
• Interestingly, he had an affair with Bollywood beauty Sangeeta Bijalani when he was married to Naureen due to which his marriage with Naureen broke and he got married to Sangeeta Bijalani. But, his marriage with Sangeeta Bijalani also broke because of his alleged affair with Badminton player Jwala Gutta.

The man has always been surrounded by controversies but one cannot ignore the class, the elegance, and the nonchalant in his game. It was always a treat to watch Mohammed Azharuddin bat and nobody liked it when he got out early because he was a thorough entertainer of the game too. He became famous because of his fluid and classy batting and many people had something to say about his style of cricket.

The poster boy Mohammed Azharuddin got convicted for match-fixing in the match-fixing scandal in the year 2000, According to the CBI reports it was Mohammed Azharuddin who introduced the South African skipper Hansie Cronje to the brokers, and later the ICC and BCCI banned the cricketer for lifetime on the report based on Central Intelligence of Bureau, but later in the year, 2006 BCCI revoked the ban.

Mohammed Azharuddin match fixing scandal brought the darkest chapter in Mohammad Azharuddin Biography.

John Woodcock, a cricket writer, said of him, “It’s no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. It would be like expecting a greyhound to win The Derby”.

Retired cricketer Venkataraghavan stated that “Azharuddin had the best wrists in the game”

Mike Atherton and Angus Fraser said Azharuddin’s “genius was second only to Brian Lara among batsmen of their generation.”

Mohammed Azharuddin Post Retirement:

After a very serious allegation of the match-fixing scandal, Azharuddin had to leave cricket as he was given a life ban. Post-retirement he became a political leader and Mohammed Azharuddin National Congress Journey started in 2009. He is currently associated with the same party. He is also currently associated with Shannon Marie, joining a political party was a pivotal decision in Mohammed Azharuddin Career.

Mohammed Azharuddin Net  Worth:

The Net worth of the former Indian player Mohammed Azharuddin in the year 2020 is around 5.45 Crores, and most of his earning has come from the game of sports, and also he owns a lavish BMW car.

Pictures of Mohammed Azharuddin-Instagram: