Khan Mohammad: the bowler who took Pakistan’s first Test wicket

On 16 October 1952, Pakistan were playing their first Test match in Delhi. The new ball was in the hands of a fast-medium bowler from Lahore. He bowled the Indian opener Pankaj Roy for 7 to take the first Test wicket in Pakistan’s history. The bowler was Khan Mohammad. Injuries cut his career short, but 54 wickets in 13 Tests at an average of 23.92 show his ability¹. Sharing the new ball with Fazal Mahmood, he played an important part in establishing Pakistan cricket².

Early life and start in cricket

Khan Mohammad was born in Lahore on 1 January 1928 and grew up in the old part of the city. He began playing cricket at Central Model High School, Lahore, but he made his name in club cricket, where his fine bowling in annual matches drew attention².

At the age of 19 he was picked for Northern India in the Ranji Trophy. He began his first-class career by taking 10 wickets in three zonal matches in the 1946-47 season. In the next two seasons he was a regular member of the Punjab University side².

In 1948, when John Goddard’s West Indies team came to Lahore to play an unofficial Test, Khan Mohammad was twelfth man. But on the tour of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) he made full use of the humid weather. He took 14 wickets in two unofficial Tests and topped the bowling averages for the tour. He also bowled well in the unofficial Tests against the MCC in 1951-52. He took 7 wickets in Pakistan’s historic win in Karachi. In 1951 he also played one match for the English county Somerset against the touring South Africans².

Style and Test cricket

According to ESPNcricinfo, Khan Mohammad’s greatest strength was that he kept control of line and length while generating pace, and he had remarkable stamina. Many of his wickets came bowled or leg before wicket, which gave the impression that he was very fast. But the same article says he was actually fast-medium, somewhat quicker than Fazal Mahmood, and swung the ball a great deal in humid weather².

In the first Test in Delhi he took 2 wickets for 52 runs in 20 overs, then picked up an injury and missed the rest of the series. On the 1954 tour of England, he bowled throughout alongside Fazal Mahmood in the Lord’s Test and took 5 wickets for 61 runs¹².

Peak in home series

Khan Mohammad was at his best in the home series of 1954-55 and 1955-56. In the four Tests against India in early 1955 he took 22 wickets. In that series he took 4 for 42 in Dhaka, 5 for 74 in Bahawalpur, 4 for 79 in Peshawar and 5 for 73 in Karachi¹.

Later that year, in three Tests against New Zealand, he took 13 wickets at an average of 15.76. In the Test that began in Dhaka on 7 November 1955, the ball swung and kept low on a rain-soaked matting wicket². There he took 6 wickets for only 21 runs in 16.2 overs, his best Test bowling, and finished the match with 8 for 41¹.

In October 1956, in the first innings against Australia in Karachi, he again bowled throughout with Fazal Mahmood. In that match he took 4 for 43 and 7 for 112 in all, and Pakistan won the Test. It was his last home Test². On the 1958 tour of the West Indies he played only 2 Tests, and his Test career ended in Port of Spain on 26 March 1958¹.

Statistics

Source: ESPNcricinfo Statsguru¹. The figures are for his international career.

Impact and legacy

Khan Mohammad’s Test career lasted only 13 matches, but in the 8 Tests played on Pakistani pitches his bowling average was 15.88¹. According to ESPNcricinfo, he was Pakistan’s leading fast bowler of his time. However, repeated injuries and league cricket commitments in England meant he did not play as many Tests as his ability deserved².

After leaving the game he took MCC coaching courses and was a coach at the MCC indoor school for more than twenty years. From the early 1960s he also took up coaching roles in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Canada².

Khan Mohammad died in London on 4 July 2009². The first wicket in Pakistan’s Test history will always be his. With Fazal Mahmood, his bowling carried the new side’s attack in the early years.