.jpg) Zaheer in 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1978-10-08)8 October 1978 (age 47)[1] Shrirampur,Maharashtra, India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Zak, Zippy, Zakky[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft (183 cm)[3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Left-arm fast-medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relations | Sagarika Ghatge (m. 2017) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 231) | 10 November 2000 v Bangladesh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 14 February 2014 v New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 133) | 3 October 2000 v Kenya | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 4 August 2012 v Sri Lanka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI shirt no. | 34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| T20I debut (cap 5) | 1 December 2006 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last T20I | 2 October 2012 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1999–2006 | Baroda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004 | Surrey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006–2014 | Mumbai | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008, 2011–2013 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010, 2014 | Mumbai Indians | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2015–2017 | Delhi Daredevils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:ESPNcricinfo,25 December 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zaheer Khan (born 8 October 1978)[4] is an Indian former professionalcricketer who played all formats of the game for theIndian national team from 2000 till 2014. A left-armfast-medium bowler known for his ability to "move the ball both ways off the wicket and swing the old ball at some pace",[5] he was known forreverse swing with the old ball.[6][7] He is the second-most successful Indianpace bowler (tied withIshant Sharma) inTest cricket, behindKapil Dev.[8]
He also has the distinct record of dismissingGraeme Smith,Kumar Sangakkara,Sanath Jayasuriya andMatthew Hayden – some of the game's most feared left-handed batsmen – over 10 times each in international cricket, and also holds the record for dismissing the third-most number of left-handed batsmen (237), afterMuttiah Muralitharan (325), andShaun Pollock (252).
Khan started his domestic career by playing forBaroda. In Tests, he was averaged around 36 at home and 31 away from home. With India, he was a member of the team that was one of the joint-winners of the2002 ICC Champions Trophy, and one of the key members of the2011 World Cup winning team, leading the pace attack with 21 wickets in just 9 games. In 2011 he was conferred with theArjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour, by thePresident of India.
During the course of his career, Khan sustained recurring injuries, which often interrupted his progress at the international level, and this was the reason he set upProSport Fitness & Services, a special rehabilitation & training center in association with Adrian Le Roux andAndrew Leipus.
Khan was selected as one of theWisden Cricketers of the Year in the year 2008. He announced his retirement from international cricket in October 2015.[9] He played forWorcestershire in County Cricket and played forRoyal Challengers Bangalore,Delhi Daredevils andMumbai Indians in theIndian Premier League. In 2020, theGovernment of India honoured him with thePadma Shri. He was the former mentor of the IPL teamLucknow Super Giants for the 2025 edition.
Khan was born on 8 October 1978 inShrirampur,Ahmednagar district,Maharashtra, in aMarathi Muslim family to Zakia and Bakhtiyar Khan.[4] He has an elder brother, Zeeshan and a younger brother, Anees. He started his coaching under Utsav Yadav, and attended the New Marathi Primary School and the K.J. Somaiyya Secondary School in Shrirampur. He also played in the local Revenue Colony Cricket Club (RCC) in Shrirampur after which he started his career inPune.[10]
On 24 April 2017, he announced on his Twitter account that he was engaged to actressSagarika Ghatge.[11] The couple got married on 23 November 2017.[12] The couple have a son, who was born in 2025.[13]
Khan came toMumbai in 1996 and joined the National Cricket Club that played in Division A in the city. He played in competitions such as theKanga Cricket League, Comrade Shield and the Purshottam Shield with the team. Sandeep Mahadkar, Khan's captain during the time, recalled the latter's ability with the ball with an instance where hereverse swung a ball that had been bowled 50 overs with, bowling ten maiden overs and helping his team win a Comrade Shield game. His ability with the bat was recalled by another former teammate with who Khan put together a 102-run stand for ninth wicket making anunbeaten 62 runs taking his team home.[14] His "jaw-dropping spells in the Purshottam Shield" culminated with the 7/74 performance against Shivaji Park Gymkhana in January 1997.[15][16] he was later sent to theMRF Pace Foundation inChennai by Sudhir Naik, owner of the National Cricket Club.[14] Impressed by his talent, the bowling coach there,T. A. Sekhar, pushed Khan to play forBaroda.[15]
Khan quickly made his name playing for Baroda in thefirst-class level. In the final of the2000–01 season of theRanji Trophy againstRailways, Khan received theman of the match award after he returned figures of 8/145 for the match, including a five-wicket haul in the second innings (5/16),[17] helping his team lift the trophy for the fifth time and a first in 43 years.[18]
Khan transferred toMumbai at the start of the2006–07 Indian cricket season his debut for Mumbai until the final of theRanji Trophy in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeatedBengal.
In 2005 Khan, signed forWorcestershire County Cricket Club in England as one of their two overseas players, replacingShoaib Akhtar.[19] Although Worcestershire went on to lose the match, Zaheer took ten wickets againstSomerset on debut;[20] in doing so he became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets on debut for over 100 years.[21] In June he took the first nine wickets to fall in the first innings againstEssex, ending with 9–138; had wicket-keeperSteven Davies not dropped a catch offered by last manDarren Gough he would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the county.
Khan has played theRoyal Challengers as well asMumbai Indians before he was picked for theDelhi Daredevils in the2015 auction. He has captained the Daredevils in 2016 and 2017. In 2017 season, Zaheer became the 10th bowler in the history and 8th Indian bowler, to pick 100 wickets in Indian Premier League. At the age of 38, he is the oldest player to achieve this feat.
Zaheer was selected in 2000 for the first intake of theNational Cricket Academy inBangalore.[22] He made his Test debut againstBangladesh and ODI debut againstKenya during the 2000ICC KnockOut Trophy in the same year.[5]
In late 2005 pacemenSreesanth andR. P. Singh made their international debuts and became regular members of the Indian team making it difficult for Zaheer to retain his position in the playing eleven. TheBoard of Control for Cricket in India demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year. He returned for the 2005 tour of Pakistan, where India fielded three left arm pacemen and had difficulty dismissing Pakistan with a lack of variety in the bowling attack.
Late in 2006, Zaheer was recalled to the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa, followingIrfan Pathan's slump in form and an injury toMunaf Patel. After consistent performances on tour, his performance in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, including a career best 5/42, saw him named in the squad for the2007 World Cup.
He won the Man of the Match award in the first Test between India and Australia in the2008–2009 series in India for his all round performance with the bat and the ball.
He has taken 282 ODI wickets at an average of just over 29 runs per wicket taking 4 wickets in a match 6 times (4 times againstZimbabwe) including 32 wickets against Zimbabwe at an average of 17.46 runs per dismissal. He, along with other seamers likeJavagal Srinath andAshish Nehra helped India to make it to the finals of the2003 World Cup. Zaheer finished the tournament as fourth highest wicket-taker – 18 wickets from 11 matches at an average of 20 runs per wicket.[23] He is also the fourth highest wicket-taker in ODIs for India with 282 scalps behindAnil Kumble (337),Javagal Srinath (315) andAjit Agarkar (288).[24]
Zaheer has taken 311 Test wickets at an average of just over 32 runs per wicket. South African star all-rounderJacques Kallis was Zaheer's 300th test wicket. In 16 matches from the beginning of the tour of West Indies in April 2002 to the end of the 1st match against Australia in December 2003,Brisbane, Zaheer took 54 wickets from 16 matches at an average of 30 runs. It all turned downhill after the first Test against Australia in Brisbane in December 2003. Having taken 5 of the top 7 Australian batsmen in the first innings (5 for 95), he injured himself in the second during the opening spell. After missing the second Test he returned for the third, but was injured midway through the match and was forced to return home. The injury kept him from the early 2004 tour of Pakistan, India's first Test series victory in the country.
Earlier, Zaheer held the world record for the highest Test score by a number 11 when he scored 75 againstBangladesh in 2004.[25] At the time he was batting withSachin Tendulkar; the pair amassed 133 runs, a new record for India's tenth-wicket.[26] This record was broken byTino Best of theWest Indies in 2012. The current record holder isAshton Agar of theAustralia on his debut match in 2013.
In international cricket, Zaheer Khan was the first bowler to bowl knuckle ball. Zaheer Khan introduced the knuckle ball way back in 2011 world cup. He used that ball for great effect. He used that ball to get crucial wickets at crucial times like the wickets ofIan Bell andPaul Collingwood against England and the wicket ofDevon Smith against the West Indies and the wicket ofMichael Hussey in the Quarter Final against Australia.
In an interview he said : "The whole 2011 World Cup, I was looking forward to it, especially playing in front of the home crowd – even if it added that extra bit of pressure. I was preparing a new delivery that I wanted to use, which was the knuckle ball. I was working on it for a year leading up to the tournament. Even though I had perfected it, I was purposely not using it in any of the matches [before the tournament]. It got me a lot of success. When a plan like that works, it gives you extra satisfaction."
Zaheer has 44 World Cup wickets, spanning from 2003 to 2011, putting him in ninth place behindGlenn McGrath (71),Muttiah Muralitharan (68),Mitchell Starc(65),Lasith Malinga (56),Wasim Akram (55),Trent Boult(53) andChaminda Vaas (49) on the list of highest number of wickets by a bowler in the marquee event. He is tied with Srinath in ninth but Srinath has played 34 games as opposed to Zaheer's 23.
Zaheer, who was one of India's trump cards during their World Cup triumph in 2011, finished as the joint highest wicket-taker along withShahid Afridi with 21 scalps.
July 2011 India embarked on atour of England. Having bowled 13.3 overs, Zaheer strained his hamstring and suffered an ankle injury in the first Test of the four-match series and as a result was ruled out of the rest of the tour.[27] Zaheer came back in December and played a test matchagainst Australia on Boxing day. He took two wickets in two consecutive deliveries, dismissingMichael Clarke for 31 andMike Hussey for a duck.[28] In the second test at Sydney, he took three wickets of the four to fall, Clarke scoring 329*; his were the best figures in both these innings.[29] As of February 2014[update] Zaheer Khan is ranked 22 in theICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. Hetoured South Africa in December 2013[30] andNew Zealand in 2014.
Zaheer Khan announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket on 15 October 2015 in a tweet saying "I bid adieu to my career in international cricket. I look forward to signing off with IPL 9."[31]
Zaheer was announced as bowling coach for theIndia national cricket team in 2017, but was instead appointed to a bowling consultant role by the new Indian head coachRavi Shastri.[32][33][34] He became Director of Cricket forMumbai Indians in 2018 and was promoted to Global Head of Cricket Development in 2022.[35][36] He was team mentor forLucknow Super Giants from August 2024 to September 2025, with responsibilities including direction of team scouting and strategy.[37][38]
| Company type | Physical fitness and sports |
|---|---|
| Industry | Physical fitness |
| Founded | Mumbai,India |
| Founder | Zaheer Khan |
| Headquarters | , India |
Key people | Zaheer Khan,Andrew Leipus, Adrian Le Roux |
| Divisions | Functional training, strength and conditioning,physiotherapy |
| Website | http://prosportfitness.in/ |
In 2014 Khan founded a fitness and sports company ProSport Fitness and Services inMumbai, that offers fitness training andphysiotherapy services.[39] Involving personnel such asAndrew Leipus and Adrian Le Roux, the center aims to "maximize potential" of people and athletes by personally assisted fitness programs. Khan stated that the objective was to "bring in world class fitness program to India for sports injury management".[40][41][42] It offers scientifically designed programs and treatment while conducting workshops and sessions for corporates and schools to spread awareness of physical fitness.[43]
(...) Zaheer Khan - all around six feet. You are just about 5' 10" (...)
India squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Australia  |
|
|---|---|
England  |
|
India  |
|
New Zealand  |
|
Pakistan  |
|
South Africa  |
|
Sri Lanka  |
|
West Indies  |
|
Current players are listed inbold. Updated: 8 December 2025 | |
