Birth date: 1986-06-10

Hometown: Karachi

Teams: Pakistan, Karachi Cricket Association Blues, Karachi Dolphins, Karachi Harbour, Karachi Urban, Pakistan A, Pakistan Under-19s, Port Qasim Authority, Rajshahi Division

Debut: ODI: 2nd Feb 2008 | Test: 21st Feb 2009

 

 

Khurram is a tall right handed opening batsman who has represented Pakistan in 7 one day internationals.

At only 16, Khurram Manzoor made an attacking 73 on first-class debut against Peshawar. He drifted off the scene for a couple of years, but came back strongly for Karachi Whites in the 2004-05 season, scoring close to 500 runs with two hundreds.

 

Manzoor came into national reckoning finally after scoring over 1,000 runs at 53.9 in the first half of the 2007-08 season. He played for Pakistan A against Australia A, before being drafted into Pakistan's squad for the final ODI against Zimbabwe in January 2008. He duly made his international debut in Sheikhupura, marking it with an impressive fifty.

Manzoor was the skipper of the Academy team that toured with grat success to Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2008 and his performances on that tour and back home in the 2008/09 domestic season earned him a call up for the 3 ODIs versus Sri Lanka.

 

Manzoor has since played 7 ODI yet seems to have found himself on the outer in the one day squad, with selectors reverting to openers who are more aggressive not necessarily more effective. Manzoor did however make his test match debut against Sri Lanka in Karachi. An unbeaten 59 in an abandoned match at Lahore, impressed the selectors and he was retained for the following series away to Sri Lanka. In the final test match in Sri Lanka, Manzoor missed his maiden century by 7 runs but with Pakistan struggling to find good opening batsmen, Khurram seems to have made the opening position his to lose.

 

Khurram is definitely seen as a long term solution to Pakistan's opening problems and more than likely has a very bright future ahead of him.

 

Khurram was selected as part of Pakistan’s Test squad as an opener for Pakistan’s tour of Zimbabwe after Imran Farhat pulled out of tour citing personal reasons. Khurram wasn’t able to take advantage of the opportunity in the first Test against the Zimbabweans but was able to score two fifties in a losing effort in the second Test against the unranked Zimbabwe side.

Khurrams first challenge after his return to the international stage came against the South Africans at Abu Dhabi, which he passed wonderfully, scoring a career best 146 against a SA attacking featuring Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel. Khurrram’s efforts set up an unlikely 7 wicket win against the world’s best Test side almost a month after Pakistan had lost to a then unranked Zimbabwe team. Khurram would go on to claim man of the match for his century in the first Test. Unfortunately Khurram was unable to repeat his first Test heroics as he bagged a pair and Pakistan went down to South Africa in Dubai by an innings and 92 runs.

 

Manzoor last played a Test against Sri Lanka in August 2014, scoring only 33 runs in the match. His poor performances saw him got dropped , which saw Shehzad and Hafeez emerge as a new opening pair for Pakistan.

 

Manzoor has however featured in the recent A tour where he scored a total of 124 runs in 3 List A matches whereas 108 runs in 3 First Class matches.

 

Last updated on 13 June 2015