Rashid Israr

Rashid Israr (born 1 July 1953) is an Indian-born Pakistani retired cricketer. He played for 16 seasons in domestic cricket, between 1971 and 1987, as a specialist batter who often kept wicket. Israr scored eleven centuries during his career and has one of the highest scores recorded in a first-class match in Pakistan.

Early career Born in Sitapur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on 1 July 1953, Israr was the younger brother of Shahid Israr, who played a single Test match for Pakistan in 1976. Israr made his debut in Pakistani cricket during the 1971/72 BCCP Trophy as part of a B squad for the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) departmental team. In the match, he scored 34 and 19 in his two innings of batting. He moved on to the Public Works Department (PWD) side for the 1972/73 event, which was renamed the BCCP Patron's Trophy by this time, and, in three matches, scored three half-centuries in four innings at the crease.

During the mid-1970s, Israr represented multiple teams simultaneously, often depending on the competition he was playing in. While representing PWD again in the 1973/74 Patron's Trophy, he also represented Sind in the newly-formed Pentangular Trophy; Overall, he finished the year with a batting average of 61.71 in five total matches. and a Karachi Whites team in the final of the Kardar Summer Shield, Between all four competitions, he scored 663 runs in 11 matches at an average of 39.00. (Among first-class competitions, Rashid appeared in the Sikandar Ali Bhutto Cup, Patron's Trophy, and Abdul Sattar Pirzada Memorial Trophy with HBL, the Pentangular Trophy with Sind, and the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with Sind's B side.)

In the 1976/77 campaign, Israr spent the full domestic season with HBL. In helping the team win the Patron's Trophy against the National Bank of Pakistan cricket team, he scored 350 in an innings during the final. He stayed at the crease for roughly twelve and a half hours of match time to score his total before being dismissed. At the time, Israr's 350 was the third-highest score in Pakistan's domestic cricket history, behind only the then-world record of 499 by Hanif Mohammad in 1959 and a score of 428 by Aftab Baloch in 1974. final match against United Bank Limited. In the match, ultimately a win for PIA, he managed 20 runs in the two innings combined. Overall, his career ended with 4,905 first-class runs, in addition to 152 in List A matches.