A gifted all-rounder, Mushtaq Mohammad dominated the opposition with his skilful batting and wily leg-spin. Born in Junagadh on 22 November 1943, he is one of the four famous Mohammad brothers – Wazir, Hanif and Sadiq – to have played Test cricket for Pakistan. His mother – Ameer Bee – was also a gifted sportswoman with trophies in badminton and carom.
Mushtaq made his Test debut at a tender age of 15 and had a penchant for scoring big overseas. Six of his 10 centuries were out of Pakistan and his best Test score of 201 came in New Zealand. His only half-century in One-Day Internationals also came in England.
He scored his first Test century against India in Delhi at only 17 to become the youngest Test centurion of the time.
In an international career that began in 1959 and ended two decades later, Mushtaq played 57 Tests and 10 ODIs and captained Pakistan in 19 and four, respectively, of them. He led Pakistan to 2-0 win over India when the two countries played their first bilateral series for the first time in nearly two decades in 1978-79 and achieved a rare feat of scoring a century and taking five-wickets in a Test when he recorded a special win in the Caribbean in 1976-77.
He is considered to have normalised the use of reverse sweep - a shot that he executed effectively – in international cricket. He scored 3,643 runs and took 79 wickets Tests and 209 in ODIs.
He had an inspiring first-class career that spanned over 24 years. After beginning at the age of 13, Mushtaq made 31,091 runs and took 936 wickets. He was the first batter from Pakistan to score more than 25,000 first-class runs and his 72 centuries at this level were the most among the four brothers.
Mushtaq played for Northamptonshire from 1966 till 1977 and also captained the county.
Mushtaq was the coach of the Pakistan team that played the final of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 1999 at Lord’s.