Sajid Mahmood - Return To The County Circuit

Return To The County Circuit

In a County Championship match against Kent, Mahmood suffered a chest injury that threatened to prematurely end his 2008 season.

On 26 November 2008, Mahmood was drafted into England's squad for the last two ODI matches against India in their seven match tour. He and bowler Amjad Khan were called up as replacements for the injured Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff. Mahmood and Khan were in Bangalore with England's Performance Programme Squad. The final two ODIs were cancelled after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks and the England squad returned home due to safety concerns. Mahmood was part of the England Lions for the winter tour of New Zealand. While Khan debuted for England over the winter, Mahmood did not feature in any matches for the full England side. Despite this, he was selected in England's 25-man performance squad, and was identified by national selector Geoff Miller as being close to playing for England. Although he was part of England's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, he did not make the final squad of 15.

In April, Mahmood was selected to represent the England Lions against the West Indies. Despite being overlooked by England for the first Test of the summer, in May Mahmood secured his career-best bowling figures and his maiden 10-wicket haul. In a Lancashire victory over Worcestershire by six wickets, Mahmood took 6/75 and finished with match figures of 10/140. Mahmood was one of several Lancashire bowlers unable to play in August 2009. He, Glen Chapple, Steven Cheetham, and Tom Smith were injured and Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson were on England duty. As a stop-gap measure, Tom Lungley was loaned by Lancashire from Derbyshire County Cricket Club. After he finished the season with 41 first-class wickets at an average of 34.00, and 24 list A wickets at an average of 23.33, Mahmood was recalled to the England One Day International squad for their tour of South Africa in the winter of 2009.

Although Mahmood emphasised the work he put into improving his consistency in his two years out of the international squad, he was expensive on his come back and conceded 92 runs and took 2 wickets from the 7 overs he bowled in England's two Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa, and played in just one of the ODIs, in which he took 1/41. Mahmood joined Western Australia as an overseas player for the domestic T20 competition during the 2010/11 season. He played in five matches for them, taking five wickets at an average of 30.2.

In June 2011, in a match against Durham, Mahmood took his second ten-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Mahmood attributed his bowling success in 2011 to being more focused on playing for Lancashire; he said that before he had been distracted by trying to earn selection for England and that he performs better when relaxed.

In August 2012, after being dropped from the Lancashire side Mahmood joined injury depleted Somerset until the end of the 2012 season. At the end of the season Mahmood was released by Lancashire.