Muhammad Illyas is born on, 19 March 1946 in Lahore, Punjab. He was a former test cricketer who represented Pakistan in 10 Test matches between 1964 till 1969. He was a right-handed opening batsman and infrequent leg-spin googly bowler only showing glimpses of being of international quality.
Muhammad Ilyas Mahmood played first-class cricket from 1961 to 1972. In 1964-65, he was called up for the tour of Australia and New Zealand, regardless of showing solid rather than magnificent domestic form, and though a middle-order batsman, he was converted to an opener. The young batsman showed great promise to score 46, and 115 against Queensland, eventually earning a debut call against Australia in a one-off Test match in MCG.
He made his test debut against Australia in 1964 at Melbourne cricket ground and scored 6 runs before he run out in the first innings. In the 2nd innings, he just scored 3 before McKenzie lbw him. Indeed a really bad start to test cricket. But he bounced back with a magnificent career-best 154 against South Australia.
However, in April 1965, he scored his first test hundred of 126 runs against New Zealand at Karachi that was matching the winning innings, when Pakistan required 202 to win in five and half hours and reached the target for the loss of two wickets. Muhammad Illyas made his highest first-class score in Dec 1964, when he scored 154 runs against South Australia.
However, Muhammad Illyas keep his place for the three Tests in New Zealand, pushing into the middle order for the 2nd and 3rd tests with modest success. In 1967, Muhammad Illyas played again on the tour of England, but he struggled with the English conditions as well as a foot injury and only played in the last Test where he failed again. Then, he also played against England toured in 1968-69, scoring just 42 runs in four innings.
In 1972-73 he was part of the Pakistan squad to tour Australia but was injured early in the tour and omitted from the team before it left for the second half of the New Zealand tour. He was struck on the face and was accused of indiscipline on that tour. Therefore, he decided to stay in Australia to apply for Australian citizenship and played grade cricket for Waverley in Sydney, but later he returned back to his home country. He was last played in Pakistan in the final of the BCCP trophy to clinch the title for PIA in 1971-72.
Muhammad Illyas is the father-in-law of Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat, however, Nazar Muhammad was his uncle. In 2011, he served as a national selector but was dismissed for allegedly violating the PCB code of conduct. He served for a time as a national selector but was dismissed in 2011 for allegedly violating the Pakistan Cricket Board’s code of conduct.
