Ijaz Ahmed (cricketer) - Isolation From The Team and Come Back

Isolation From The Team and Come Back

Ijaz Ahmad was a regular member of the team on one down position, of 1999 cricket world cup played in England from 14th may to 20 June 1999. His performance appeared not too good. He also got injured in the first match of 1999 world cup, when he was hit on the leg by West Indian pacer, Dillon during a successful appeal for LBW at Bristol. This injury affected his performance in rest of the matches and he was dropped from the next match against Scotland. After the dramatic collapse of Pakistani Batting line up in 1999 world cup final against Australia, Ijaz remained the top scorer of the innings with 22 runs. He was also the batsman who was surprisingly held responsible for the batting collapse in the final match. This regular succession of poor performances, led to isolation of Ijaz from the national team and so he was not a part of the national team in the Toranto Cricket Festival of 1999 against the West Indies and Sharjah Cup of late 1999. Though he was given a chance in test series against Australia and the Cartlon & United Serie against India and Australia, during which he performed well both in the test and one day series. In the third test, Ijaz Ahmad scored his 12th test century and sixth against Australia at Perth, a match which Pakistan eventually lost by an Innings and some runs. In the following triangular series, Ijaz Ahmad scored three half centuries, but still he was unable to take the confidence of selectors and was again dropped from the team for than an year.