A left hand medium fast bowler who hails from Swabi, Junaid Khan, has been the most promising young fast bowler in recent years, emerging along side Mohammad Amir. Khan, bowls at decent pace and has ability to swing the ball both way. He was added to Pakistan's World Cup Squad when Sohail Tanvir was pulled out of the tournament just before Pakistan prepared to leave for the tournament.

Although he spent the entire World Cup watching from the sidelines, the learning experience helped put him in good stead for future assignments. With the retirement of Shoaib Akhtar and the suspension of Mohammad Amir, Khan finally made his well awaited debut against the West Indies in the Caribbean. While he didn't end the series with a bagful of wickets, he did enough to showcase his talent.

Through the recommendations of Wasim Akram, he was plucked by Lancashire for the English T20 competition and made an immediate impact with his control and pace. With Pakistan resting Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz, he was selected as the spearhead of the Pakistani team for the tour to Zimbabwe.

After his promising performances with the ODI squad, the Pakistani selectors picked him for the test squad. The results have been bright as Junaid Khan picked up his first five wicket haul in his second test series against SL. The journey halted for a bit as Junaid Khan was sidelined due to an injury, and the selectors overlooked him for the World Twenty20.

Junaid returned in the series against India in 2012/13 becoming a key factor in the ODI series win. He took 8 wickets in the series leading the wicket-takers column alongside Saeed Ajmal.

Junaid had a poor Champion’s Trophy, he only managed to take 1 wicket in the whole tournament, he finished with tournament figures of 1/102 in Pakistan’s disappointing campaign, and would subsequently was dropped from the starting 11 for a few matches in the series against the WI in the Caribbean. 

Junaid would come back in the latter half of the year taking 21 wickets in 10 matches against SA against SL to finish with 52 wickets for 2013 at an impressive average of 21.46 and economy of 4.88, which was highlighted by a match winning last over against SA which saw Pakistan through to a historic first ODI series win in SA. 

Junaid finished 2013 with another 5 wicket haul against SL taking his tally of Tests wickets of the year to 23 at an average of 28.52.

Junaid reached an ODI career best bowling rank of 11 and achieved his highest Test rating of 605 in 2013.

He has now become the leading bowler for Pakistan's pace attack alongside Mohammad Irfan and looks set to feature in Pakistan's bid for another ODI World Cup in 2015.

Junaid Khan's recent injuries and barren run in international cricket has seen him in and out of the playing XI. His recovery from injury has been slow and has resulted in lack of wickets. He was ruled out of the 2015 World Cup due to injury but made a comeback for the away series against Bangladesh picking 3 wickets in the ODI series and 5 wickets in the Test series. 

Junaid also played one match in the Zimbabwe home series with figures of 0-23 and was picked up for the Test team to tour Sri Lanka in 2015.

[Last updated: June 13, 2015]