Mohammad Talha

Mohammad Talha (born 15 October 1988) is a Pakistani international cricketer. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He has gained an increasing reputation in Pakistani for quick bowling, eventually leading to his selection for the national squad for the February 2009 test series against Sri Lanka.^[1]

Though relatively inexperienced, he was first noticed in the 2005 Afro-Asia Cup playing for the Pakistan U-19s, able to extract bounce and sharp burst of speed. However, injuries limited his performance in the following year. His performance in the 2008–09 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy gained him recognition, playing for National Bank of Pakistan. Alongside a fellow young pace newcomer Mohammad Aamer, he gained his first ten-wicket haul against Pakistan Customs, taking 10 for 119 in the match. Halfway through the season, he had 34 wickets in six games.^[2]

He worked extensively with Aaqib Javaid at the National Cricket Academy based in Karachi, where he slightly re-modified his action to avoid persistent injuries. Javaid said of Talha that he believed him to be close to national team selection and that he was the fastest bowler in Pakistan after Shoaib Akhtar.

In an interview, Talha commented on his desire to be known as a genuine fast bowler and to represent Pakistan at the highest level,^[3] "I want to be a 145kp/h+ bowler. I don't want to get slower, I just want to get faster and faster."

In the home test series against Sri Lanka in 2009, he was chosen for the 15-man squad for both the first and second test. For the first test he was overlooked for pacemen Sohail Khan and all-rounder Yasir Arafat.

Talha grew up in Faisalabad, where he began playing tape ball cricket, encouraged by his elder brother. Talha has a daughter named Rumaan and lives in Hajia Bad. He received his early education from the Government School in Hajia Bab. In 2003, he went for the Under-16s trial in the Faisalabad region and was selected but admits to not having the stamina at the time for longer version of the game. He has said that, like many young Pakistani bowlers of the current era, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were his cricketing idols whilst growing up and also added that Brett Lee was also someone he tried to learn from. He has modeled his bowling action on that Lee's.

Talha debutó en Test contra Sri Lanka el 1 de marzo de 2009. Aunque no logró impresionar tras lanzar 17 overs, concedió 88 carreras y eliminó a M. Muralitharan, quien bateaba en la novena posición. El partido se canceló debido a un ataque contra el equipo de Sri Lanka. Fue convocado nuevamente al equipo de Pakistán en 2014 para jugar contra Sri Lanka. En esta ocasión, lanzó de manera brillante y consiguió wickets en ambas entradas. Debutó en ODI contra India y lanzó bien, logrando 2 wickets por 22 carreras en 7 overs. En los siguientes dos partidos, concedió 1-68 en 7 overs contra Bangladesh y 1-56 en 6.2 overs contra Sri Lanka en la final. Formó parte del equipo de Pakistán para el torneo ICC World Twenty 20 de 2014, pero tuvo que permanecer en el banquillo durante todo el torneo.

• Mohammad Talha en Cricinfo