Ijaz Ahmed Junior is a former Pakistan middle-order batsman. He appeared in two test matches and two ODI’s for Pakistan in 1995–96. Ijaz Ahmed Junior was born on February 2, 1969, in Lyallpur (Faisalabad). He made his test debut against Sri Lanka in Peshawar in September 1995. In the first inning, he was caught by AP Gurushina off Muttiah Muralitharan bowling, and he scored 5 off 30 balls.
In the second test match at Faisalabad, in the first inning, he scored 16 runs off 41 balls with 3 lovely boundaries. However, in the 2nd inning, he again dismissed cheaply 8 runs off 31 balls of Chaminda Vass Bowling. This was his final appearance for Pakistan, which is truly unfortunate for a talented batsman.
He went back to domestic cricket, and he worked hard to come back. Therefore, after two years of exorbitant hard work, he comes back to the Pakistan side, visiting Australia for Carlton and the United series. Pakistan won the series for the first time in Australia. But he has failed again on the two chances provided to him.
In the first match against the West Indies at Perth, he scored three not-outs off two balls batting at No. 9 positions. Simply, unluckily, Pakistan’s senior players played most of the inning. However, in the second match in Sydney, his batting could not come. This was his final match for Pakistan. That is an extremely sad end to his career, not providing too many opportunities.
He has brilliant domestic records, scoring 13058 runs at 40.93 with the highest score of 229*, including 33 hundred, 62 fifties, and 232 catches. Also, as a right-arm off-spin bowler, he grabbed 171 wickets with the best of 6 of 62, including six times five wickets in an inning and one time ten wickets in a match.
In 152 list A matches, he scored 4418 runs at 35.62 runs with the best of 134, including 5 hundred, 33 fifties, and 63 catches. In the bowling department, he took 79 wickets, with the best of 5 for 42.
In 11 T20 matches, he scored 125 runs at 17.85 with the best of 44 and no wicket under this format. These stats clearly show that he deserved more chances, but Pakistan selectors were unsatisfied with the limited opportunities provided to him. That is extremely unfair for a batsman who has more than 40 averages in domestic cricket.
Even though, at one stage, Ijaz Ahmad Junior was compared with the great Inzamam ul Haq. But he could not thrive in international cricket for a long time. That was the sad story of an unfortunate cricketer.
