Qatar captain Iqbal Hussain Chaudhry in action in this file photo.
Doha: Qatar skipper Iqbal Hussain Chaudhry picked seven wickets in four matches in the recently-concluded Asia Qualifier Group A for the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup and his haul helped him jump to third career best strike rate for a bowler in the ICC rankings.
Chaudhry gave away only 89 runs in 15 overs that he bowled during the event. His best of three for nine came against Maldives in the qualifier, which took place at the Asian Town Stadium.
Home team Qatar narrowly missed out on advancing to one of the two Global Qualifiers for the 2022 T20 World Cup, to be hosted by Australia. Bahrain topped the five-team pool by 0.093 margin on Net Run-rare to push Qatar to the second spot.
Chaudhry overall has taken 45 wickets in 26 matches with an impressive strike rate of 12.5 in the ICC list, which is topped by Afghanistan star Rashid Khan.
He has bagged 101 wickets in 54 matches at an amazing strike rate of 11.8. Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhaneholds the second place. He has 12.2 strike rate but he has 47 victims from 26 matches QCA President Yousef Jeham Al Kuwari praised Chaudhry for his rise in the ICC ranking list. He was with Qatar captain Chaudhry’s performance and commented: “It is a great performance and honour for our QCA board/management and cricket lovers in Qatar that our players are getting prominence spots in the ICC list.
“Our national team captain Iqbal Hussain is in the news once again for getting the third place in the Best Career Strike Rate category in the T20 Internationals. In 2019-20, he had grabbed the headlines for featuring among the top 10 bowlers in the T20I for getting most wickets.”
Al Kuwari added: “The recent stats show that during 2019 to 2021, he played only 26 T20I matches for Qatar and his superb performance led him to the third place. We are absolutely thrilled by his feat. We are always backing such talent in our squad and will be providing full support in terms of coaching and facilities.
“I trust that the supervision of our managerial staff and I’m confident that there are many other players in the national team with excellent skills and talent. I wish my captain best of luck for the coming season and continuing to perform for Qatar with the same spirit and sportsmanship,” Al Kuwari said.
