Basit Ali

Basit Ali (Urdu: باسط علی, born December 13, 1970, in Karachi, Sindh) is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 19 Tests and 50 ODIs from 1993 to 1996. He was recognized by many to have a similar batting style as Javed Miandad. A right-hander, he has the relatively uncommon statistic of having a higher ODI than Test batting average. Strong through the covers and point, Ali was also a nerveless hooker and puller against the fast bowlers. Appointed as National Pakistan Cricket Coach in 2016, after world twenty 2016 in India.

Ali was a successful junior cricketer, at one time holding the record for most hundreds in a Karachi zonal league season.^[2] He debuted for Pakistan aged 22 in March 1993, playing both ODI and Test cricket in a tour of the Caribbean. For similarities and batting styles and temperament, he was initially seen as the one who'd take the mantle of Pakistani batting from Javed Miandad. He went on to play in 19 Tests but made just the one Test century, against New Zealand in 1993-94.

An aggressive risk taker, he was a regular in the Pakistani ODI side for a while in the mid 90's. In November 1993 he scored the then second fastest One Day International century in history, with a 67 ball effort against the West Indies at Sharjah. He took 5 more balls as compared to the record of Mohammad Azharuddin who took 62 balls. Basit Ali finished on 127 not out. Aamir sohail was acting captain in that match.^[3]

He became involved in the Pakistani match fixing scandal which ended the career of Saleem Malik. Ali and Rashid Latif accused Pakistani players of match-fixing as well as facing allegations against themselves.^[4] He was forced into a premature retirement.

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