Umar Gull Biography
source link (google.com)Gul was born in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan he was born in a middle-class family and frequently played tape-ball cricket.
People on the street encouraged Gul to become an international cricketer as they saw his superb bowling. On October 2010 Gul's family announced that he was to wed a Dubai Doctor. The doctor is from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and she was born there as well.
Umar Gul began his One Day International (ODI) career on April 3, 2003 in a match against Zimbabwe at the Cherry Blossom Sharjah Cup. He played in all the three group matches of the 2007 World Cup picking up four wickets with an impressive economy rate of 3.13. Having played 48 ODIs, he holds a good bowling average of 28.45 for 64 wickets, which includes one five-wicket haul.
Umar Gul played his first international Twenty 20 (T20I) match on September 4, 2007 against Kenya in Nairobi. He took three New Zealand wickets conceding 15 runs of just four overs at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 of 2007. His achievement helped Pakistan to win the semi-final against New Zealand. Umar Gul took three wickets in the final match against India and became the highest wicket-taker in the series. He played three matches for Peshawar team at the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and represented the Pakistan A in a few matches. Before being selected in the 2006 Pakistani squad for the England tour, Umar Gul played some warm-up matches with Pakistan XI.
On 30 May 2012, Pakistan Army raided Umar Gul's house in Peshawar and arrested his brother on the charge of hiding a wanted militant.
In February 2008, Gul signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for US $150,000.
He played in six matches, taking 12 wickets at an average of 15.33, including a player of the match award in Kolkata's final game in which Gul took 4-23 and scored 24 runs from 11 balls.
In December 2008 Gul signed with the Western Warriors to compete in the Australian domestic 2008-09 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament.
In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008 campaign, he was purchased for a price of $150,000 to represent the Kolkata Knight Riders team. On May 25, 2008, in a match against Kings XI Punjab, he claimed four wickets for 23 runs. For his commendable performance in the game, Umar Gul won the Player of the Match award. He played six innings scoring 39 runs with a strike rate of 205.26. Umar Gul took 12 wickets conceding 184 runs with a bowling average of 15.33 and an economy rate of 8.17.
He performed very well in his debut match for the Warriors, taking 4 wickets for 15 runs in a losing side.
He was amongst the most successful bowlers in the competition despite not being available for the entire tournament he finished second top wicket taker with 12 wickets.
Internationally, Gul has taken 47 wickets in just 32 games at an average of 14.65, a truly outstanding statistic.
He is the second leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals behind teammate Shahid Afridi.Umar Gul, after taking five-for in Twenty20 International Cricket, became the first ever bowler to own five wickets haul in all international formats of the game.
Despite the fact that Gul is a bowler he can perform well as a lower order batsman and has proved that he has the ability to score runs quickly he finest moment with the bat came in a test match vs England in August 2010 when Pakistan were at 103/7 and Gul came into bat he scored 29 of 30 deliveries when play was ended on that day however two more wickets had fallen and the team were at 148/9 by night-time Pakistan would need 11 runs to avoid the follow-on. Gul then came and with his number 10 partner Mohammad Asif; Gul scored 34 runs in just 11 deliveries however his partner Mohammad Asif was run out at the other end and Gul ended on 65*.