64 Facts About Waqar Younis

Waqar Younis Maitla HI is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who captained Pakistan national cricket team.

Waqar Younis is the former head coach of the Pakistani cricket team.

Waqar Younis played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003.

Waqar Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed.

Waqar Younis took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career.

Waqar Younis has the best strike rate, after Dale Steyn, for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets.

Waqar Younis is the youngest bowler to take 400 wickets in ODI cricket.

Waqar Younis is placed in the top ten of all time based on ICC rankings.

Waqar Younis worked as a bowling coach with the national side from 2006 to 2007.

Waqar Younis was appointed the coach of the Pakistan cricket team on 3 March 2010.

Waqar Younis resigned as Pakistan's cricket coach on 19 August 2011 citing personal reasons.

Waqar Younis joined Sunrisers Hyderabad as their bowling coach for the Indian Premier League 2013 season.

On 4 September 2019, Waqar Younis was appointed by the PCB as Pakistan's new bowling coach on a 3-year contract.

Waqar Younis replaced Azhar Mahmood, who was sacked after Pakistan's disappointing performance in the ICC World Cup 2019 tournament.

Waqar Younis was born in Burewala, Vehari district, Punjab, Pakistan to a Punjabi Muslim Jat family.

Waqar Younis had studied in Sadiq Public School, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, the Pakistan Islamia school in Sharjah and the Government College in Burewala, Pakistan.

Waqar Younis was raised in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, where his father was a contract worker.

Waqar Younis returned to Pakistan and started playing cricket there during his adolescent years.

Waqar Younis used to travel to Burewala to play cricket which garnered him the nickname of the Burewala Express.

Waqar Younis has worked as a television sports commentator for the Nine Network in Australia and for Ten Sports in the United Arab Emirates.

Waqar Younis recovered from this accident and went on to continue his sporting career.

Waqar Younis was eventually discovered by former Pakistan captain, Imran Khan and was selected to be part of the national side.

Waqar Younis had played only six first-class games when he got picked for the Pakistan camp out of the blue.

Waqar Younis went on to win the English County Championship with Glamorgan in 1997.

Waqar Younis took 7 wickets for 25 against Lancashire at Liverpool on 21 June 1997, which included a hat-trick achieved after narrowly missing a hat-trick and took 68 wickets in the season.

Waqar Younis made his International cricket debut for Pakistan against India on 16 November 1989, in the same match that Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar made his debut.

Waqar Younis took 4 wickets in the drawn match including the wickets of Tendulkar and Kapil Dev.

Waqar Younis made an immediate impression with his speed and became known in the cricket media as "Wiki" or the "Burewala Express".

Waqar Younis was the first cricketer to be banned from playing in a match for such incident.

Waqar Younis was involved in further controversy during 2003 World Cup matches.

Waqar Younis resigned from this position on 6 January 2007 in protest against the Pakistan Cricket Board decision to retain him only for the Test series against South Africa and not for the subsequent series of five One Day International matches.

Waqar Younis blamed captain Inzamam-ul-Haq for going with Mushtaq Ahmed instead of him for the bowling coach position.

Waqar Younis was re-appointed as Pakistan's bowling and fielding coach for their tour of Australia in December 2009.

In February 2010, Waqar Younis was appointed the head coach of Pakistan after Intikhab Alam was sacked as coach, owing to the low level of performances of the national side during the tour of Australia earlier that year.

Waqar's first job as coach was to lead an inexperienced Pakistan side missing Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik to the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 as a consolation, though Waqar had two top-notch bowlers in Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif at his disposal.

Waqar Younis guided the defending champions to the semi-final of the tournament before they were eliminated by Australia, whose Mike Hussey struck three sixes in the final over.

Waqar Younis stated that now it was the time for Pakistan to rally and prepare for the World Cup.

Waqar Younis eventually stepped down as Pakistan coach in August 2011 citing personal reasons but a rift with captain Shahid Afridi may have been a contributing factor.

In May 2014, Waqar Younis was reappointed as the head coach of Pakistan Cricket team for a period of two years, commencing from June 2014, hence serving in that capacity for the second time.

Waqar Younis resigned from the position of Head Coach of Pakistani Cricket team, on April 4,2016.

Waqar Younis said the reasons behind his resignation were cricket board's failure to work on his recommendations and leak of a confidential report after the World T20.

Waqar Younis will serve as the head coach for Multan Sultans During the Third season of the Pakistan Super League.

On 16 November 2017 Waqar Younis appointed as a mentor for Sylhet Sixers a team of Bangladesh Premier League for 2017.

Waqar Younis faced great criticism after Pakistan was unable to make it to the semi-finals, with less pressure on the fact that the country had not seen international cricket for a number of years, Younis was initially blamed.

Waqar Younis 'begged' for forgiveness to the nation and said he was ready to retire if it was needed but said it could have been due to the lack of cricket in their own country.

Waqar Younis submitted the report to the PCB where it was somehow leaked to the media.

Waqar Younis said Afridi either performed poorly himself, or that other players did not listen to him as a captain.

Waqar Younis then scrapped plans of retirement and said he wanted to focus on the leak, despite his contract as coach ending in June 2016.

Waqar Younis said he did not want to blame individuals but largely singled out players, particularly Afridi.

Waqar Younis said Akmal should not have been selected, instead it should be players who are 'proud' to represent their country.

Waqar Younis said that the team lost the Asia cup in February 2016 because they were 'unfit' as they had not trained during PSL season and said it was like a 'holiday for them'.

Waqar Younis said it was unfair for him to first use Mohammad Nawaz, a new player, as a bowler in the Asia Cup 2016 because it 'destroyed' his confidence when he was unable to handle it after being hit for 38 runs in 3 overs.

On 4 April 2016, Waqar Younis resigned as Head Coach of the team, just after Shahid Afridi resigned as T20 captain.

Waqar Younis stepped down as coach 3 months before his contract would end and said that his scrapped salary should definitely be invested in domestic cricket.

Waqar Younis added that he had tried his best to revive the team but they were still unable to better their performance and his recommendations in the report were badly handled by the PCB, who refused to even talk about the leak.

Waqar Younis said his services to Pakistan cricket should not be forgotten and said he was stepping down with a heavy heart.

Waqar Younis is one of several Pakistani fast bowlers, beginning with Sarfraz Nawaz, who have been successful at bowling reverse swing, because he was used as an old-ball bowler early in his career until Imran Khan retired.

In partnership with Akram, Waqar Younis opened the Pakistan bowling attack in the 1990s.

Waqar Younis explained his ability to reverse swing by the manipulation of an old ball; with one side shiny, one side rough, the ball would move in the opposite direction to conventional swing.

Waqar Younis was effective in the use of bouncers or short pitch deliveries; Waqar's bowling against South Africa in Sheikhupura in Pakistan, is remembered for his effective use of the short pitched delivery.

Waqar Younis was one of the greatest bowlers ever, and I was a bowler so I really enjoyed watching him.

Waqar Younis has taken five or more wickets in an innings on 22 occasions in Test cricket.

Waqar Younis was inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame of 9 December 2013.

Waqar Younis became the 70th male inductee into the Hall of Fame, joining compatriot Hanif Mohammad and Zaheer Abbas as well as his former teammates Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram.