Legspinner Danish Kaneria made his Test debut for Pakistan against England at Faisalabad in November 2000, becoming only the second Hindu to play Test cricket for pakistan after his cousin Anil Dalpat.

Name: Danish Kaneria

Legspinner Danish Kaneria made his Test debut for Pakistan against England at Faisalabad in November 2000, becoming only the second Hindu to play Test cricket for Pakistan after his cousin Anil Dalpat. The following year, he registered his first match-winning performance picking up 6 wickets in each innings of the match against Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship in Multan.

Kaneria's peak years came after 2004 when he produced some magical spells against Sri Lanka, West Indies, India, England, South Africa and Australia. Kaneria was a significant turner of the ball and being tall, he was also able to extract good bounce from the wicket. He did have plenty of varieties in his armoury but seemed to overuse them - he was particularly seen to overutilise the googly.

Although Kaneria became a regular feature in Pakistan's Test side for a long period of time, he failed to cement his spot in the ODIs despite taking 15 wickets in 18 matches with an economy rate of 4.79. He was a surprise inclusion in the 2007 World Cup squad but was given limited chances in what was a disastrous tournament for Pakistan.

In Test cricket, Kaneria was largely used as a stock bowler in his career, rushing through his overs and sometimes bowling more than half of his team’s overs in an innings. Despite taking 261 wickets in 61 matches, Kaneria was often criticised for being too expensive. Some also argue that his statistics would have been better than what they are had he played under a pro-active captain and with a skilful wicket-keeper.

With offspinner Saeed Ajmal's emergence, Kaneria's international career seemed to be heading towards a quiet end when suddenly the corruption charge appeared. Kaneria, along with Essex team mate Mervyn Westfield were found to have underperformed in a Pro40 match in 2009. Whilst Westfield pleaded guilty in January 2012, Kaneria was banned for life by the ECB in June and has been unable to overturn this ban. The PCB have also prevented him from playing domestic cricket in Pakistan as a result.

Last updated on: 14 June 2015