Top 5 England cricketers of Pakistani origin

In the history of sports, individuals from one country representing and even doing well for another is not a new thing by any means. Cricket is not short of any such examples: countries like England, Australia and South Africa have always had brilliant players from South-Asian communities doing well from them.

England over the years had some talented and well-known players of Pakistani descent who went on to represent the country and achieved phenomenal feats. Let us look at 5 such talented England cricketers of Pakistani origin.

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#1 Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali is one of the most prominent cricketers of Pakistani origin who has been a vital member of the England team. Hailing from the Mirpur community, the Birmingham-born all-rounder was the newest cricketer who came to be fondly known as 'the beard that is feared'.

When Ali broke through, he was first seen as a bits-and-pieces cricketer who could boast of exciting talent. But to his credit, he transformed his talent into performance and went on to become one of the most consistent members of the England team.

He was in phenomenal form last year as he scored 547 runs and picked 32 wickets in Tests. He also had 376 runs and 23 wickets to go with it in ODIs. Because of his consistent all-round capabilities, Ali has brought in an exciting blend of experience and youthful consistency to the team.

#2 Adil Rashid

Like his current team-mate Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid is another promising England bowling all-rounder of Pakistani descent who hails from the Mirpur community. Born in West Yorkshire, Rashid showed glimpses of brilliance from an early age until his talent was spotted by Terry Jenner.

After an immensely successful county career, by the end of 2006, he was already being considered as one of the most talented leg-spinners in the country. Rashid now has 36 wickets from the 32 ODIs he has played in. He also has 8 scalps from his 3 Test matches.

Rashid belongs to the generation of young, dynamic and fearless English cricketers who have been playing the game with a great degree of freedom. Apart from his impeccable bowling skills, he can also be a useful and exciting batsman down the order.

#3 Sajid Mahmood

One of the most promising England fast bowlers who could consistently bowl fast and terrorise the opposition batsmen was Sajid Mahmood. Though born in Greater Manchester, Mahmood's family originally hails from Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

Popular anecdotes about his pace recount how he had broken the hands of his team-mates Andrew Flintoff and Alex Gidman early on in his career. Starting out as a supermarket shelf-stacker, Mahmood went on to become one of the most successful fast bowlers for Lancashire with whom he had a long 12-year career.

He could not, however, do justice to his talent at the international level and featured only sporadically for England, playing 8 Tests and 26 ODIs. He was at the peak of his form in late 2006 when he was picked for the Ashes tour and then went to feature in the 2007 World Cup.

#4 Usman Afzaal

One of the least remembered English batsmen of Pakistani origin to have briefly played for the country is Usman Afzaal. Born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Afzaal went on to play three Test matches for England in 2001.

He started his first-class career with Nottinghamshire and then switched to Northamptonshire in 2003. He had a stellar first-class career where he scored 14,055 runs from the 235 matches he played in.

Afzaal was picked to represent England in the three Tests against Australia in 2001. He failed to make an impact in the first two Tests coming away with total scores of 6 and 18 from both the innings.

But in the Oval Test, he scored his first international half-century and was dismissed for 54 in the first innings. However, he was never picked by the English selectors again and the Oval Test turned out to be his last international match for England.

#5 Owais Shah

One of the most loved and well-remembered England cricketers of Pakistani origin to have represented the country is Owais Shah. Considered as a cricketing prodigy from his boyhood days, Shah went on to become a renowned player in the English county circles.

Having captained the England U-19 team to a World Cup victory in 1998, he made his ODI debut against Australia at Bristol in 2001. He, however, had to wait for his Test debut till 2006 when he scored 88 in his very first Test against India at Mumbai.

Despite his bad reputation of being a nudger and even unathletic at times, Shah was phenomenal when it came to playing stylish pick-up shots on the leg-side. He scored 1834 ODI runs and 347 T20I runs for England.