Owais Alam Shah (born 22 October 1978) is a former England

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. A middle-order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

, he played for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

from 1995 to 2010 and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

from 2011 to 2013 before announcing his retirement from

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

. He played

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

cricket for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

in 2014 and 2015. He also represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in all forms of the game. Between 2001 and 2009, he played 71 ODIs and 17

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

s. He also played 6 Tests, starting with a strong 88 on debut against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 2006, however opportunities were limited and he did not make his third appearance until 2009 against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

in 2008–09. With

Michael Vaughan Michael Paul Vaughan (born 29 October 1974) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He served as England captain for the test team from 2003 to 2008, the one-day international team from 200 ...

retired and

Ian Bell Ian Ronald Bell (born 11 April 1982) is an English former cricketer who played international cricket in all formats for the England cricket team and county cricket for Warwickshire County Cricket Club. A right-handed higher/middle order batsm ...

dropped, Shah had the opportunity to claim the number three position for himself, however a weak series saw him dropped in favour of

Ravi Bopara Ravinder Singh Bopara (born 4 May 1985) is an English cricketer who plays for Sussex County Cricket Club in one day cricket. Originally a top-order batsman, his developing medium pace bowling has made him a batting all rounder in the one day ...

. He also represented the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

team

Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The Knight Riders ...

during the 2009 and 2010 seasons before being bought by

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala was a franchise cricket team that played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing the city of Kochi, Kerala. The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside Pune Warriors India ...

for the following two seasons, and had a short stint at the Wellington Firebirds in New Zealand. After Kochi Tuskers were excluded from the

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season, he played for

Rajasthan Royals Rajasthan Royals (often abbreviated as RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Ma ...

in IPL 5.

Early career

Shah was born in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, Sindh,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

; a cricketing prodigy as an adolescent, Owais Shah began his career playing cricket for Wycombe House Cricket Club, breaking a number of club records. Owais scored a league 154 for the senior first XI when aged only 12. He won numerous awards for the club including the Ken Barrington National Cup. His maturity at a young age allowed him to work his way through both the England Youth and Middlesex Cricket County System. He made his first-class debut at age 17 in 1996 and won the

NBC Denis Compton Award The NBC Denis Compton Award was an annual award given to 'The Most Promising Young Player' at each of the 18 first-class counties in England and Wales. The award was made between 1996 and 2011. A player may receive the award more than once. Hist ...

in 1997. In early 1998 he captained England to victory in the Under 19's World Cup in South Africa, and the following season he was captain of the

England Under-19 cricket team The England Under-19 cricket team have been playing official Under-19 Test matches since 1974. Prior to 1991/92 they were known as England Young Cricketers. Former captains include Mike Atherton, Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook and Andrew Flint ...

for their "Test" match series at home against

. His selection for the England 'A' team that toured Australia in late 1998 at the age of 17 suggested he was on the verge of a call-up to England's Test side. However, two poor seasons followed, and despite being

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

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, by the end of that season—in which he made under 500 first-class runs—he could no longer command a place in the Middlesex first team. However, he made a return to form in 2001, averaging 41.60 and making his ODI debut against Australia at

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. Later that summer, he made 62 against Pakistan, and in 2001 Shah was named by the Cricket Writers' Club as their Young Cricketer of the Year. Owais attended Isleworth and Syon School for Boys, Lampton School (Hounslow) for his A Levels and is also a university graduate.

Return to international cricket

Despite a fairly solid start to his international career, Shah could not produce the required consistency of form, making just one more fifty in ten innings from 2001/02 to 2002/03. He also suffered from a perception that his fielding was below par, something close to unforgivable in the modern one-day game, and he was dropped from the England side without having had a chance at

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

. In 2004, a year of success with the bat (1,336 runs at 53.44) was tempered by the loss of his Middlesex captaincy in mid-season after some poor results. 2005 brought much-improved returns, as he was top-scorer of the First Division of the County Championship with two weeks left to play, having made 1578 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 65.75. At the end of the county season in September, Shah was being talked of as a possibility for England's winter tours of Pakistan and

. He was selected for the England 'B' team tour of the West Indies that winter, but was called up to the squad for the first-team tour of India after England suffered several injuries. He made his Test debut in the third Test at

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on 18 March 2006, making 88 in his first Test innings. He returned to the England Test squad, after 15 months out, for the first Test match against the

at his home ground of Lord's; however, he scored 6 and 4 in the two innings, in an otherwise productive England batting line-up. He was dropped from the squad for the second Test following captain

's return to fitness. Shah was, however, brought back for the ODI series, including two

s. While making little contribution with the bat in the first match, in which England were defeated, Shah hit a match winning 55 off 35 deliveries in the second, with England drawing the Twenty20 series 1–1. He was later made

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

. He has changed his game somewhat in recent times, and is not the classical batsman that he was in his early years; however, he still possesses a wide range of shots, with the pull shot and the fierce slap through extra cover being the most prominent. His maiden ODI century came against

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

on 5 September 2007, when he made 107* off 95 balls. Later in the same match, he bowled in an ODI for the first time, and with his 17th delivery, took his first ODI wicket, the victim being the Indian captain Rahul Dravid. Shah toured Sri Lanka with England in late 2007, and then played in the ODI series against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in early 2008. While he had a disappointing ODI series, he top-scored with 96 in the first warm-up match to enhance his claims to the Test squad. In July 2008 he helped Middlesex win the

Twenty20 Cup The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

with a match winning innings in the final with 75 runs scored off just 35 balls, the highlight of which was three successive sixes over mid-wicket off Kent off-spinner

James Tredwell James Cullum Tredwell (born 27 February 1982) is an English former international cricketer. A left-handed batsman and a right-arm off break bowler, he played his domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and was appointed as County Captain fo ...

. After the retirement of captain

during summer 2008, Shah had a chance to claim a place on the tour to the West Indies. Although

played the first Test at 3, he was dropped and replaced by Shah for the remainder of the Test series. Shah only managed one half-century, although he did reach 13,000 first-class runs during the third Test, and was not chosen for the summer Tests against West Indian cricket team in England in 2009 and Australia. He had a poor ODI series against Australia in 2009, failing to record a score of higher than 44 in all seven matches. Going into the

2009 ICC Champions Trophy The 2009 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in South Africa between 22 September and 5 October, at Wanderers Stadium and Centurion Park, both in the Gauteng province. Originally, the tournament was schedul ...

, he was under severe pressure for his place, but scored another 44 in the opening match against Sri-Lanka, before a match-winning 98 in the second group game against hosts South Africa. This came too late though, as Shah was not included in any of England's squads for the tour to South Africa. Despite still having a central contract and later being included in the England Performance Squad for the 2010 home series, he was not included in any of the final squads and did not represent England during 2010. Middlesex announced on 31 August 2010 that they would not be renewing Shah's contract at the end of the 2010 season.

Indian Premier League

With England players free to participate in the second season of the Indian Premier League, Owais Shah was signed by the

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadiu ...

for $275,000 during their second player auction. He was then traded to

in exchange of Moises Henriques. He was bought by the new team

for $200,000 and played for them in the fourth season of the IPL. In IPL 5 he played for

Wellington Firebirds

On 31 August 2009 it was announced that the Wellington Firebirds had signed Shah for their domestic Twenty20 competition in December 2009. He was recommended by his former Middlesex colleague Stephen Fleming.

Cape Cobras

Shah played for the Cape Cobras in South Africa winning the first-class, one day and Pro20 competitions during his stay.

Coaching career

Shah served as interim head coach of United Arab Emirates national team from November 2016 to January 2017, when he was succeeded by Dougie Brown. The sole major tournament for the UAE during that time was the 2017 Desert T20 Challenge. In November 2020, he was selected by the Dambulla Viiking as the Head Coach for the inaugural edition of the

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional cricket league in Sri Lanka in Twenty20 format contested every year by teams representing Sri Lankan cities from 2020. The league was founded by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 201 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Owais 1978 births Living people Owais Muhajir people Cricketers from Karachi English people of Pakistani descent British sportspeople of Pakistani descent British Asian cricketers Pakistani emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom English expatriates in the United Arab Emirates English cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Cape Cobras cricketers Delhi Capitals cricketers Dhaka Dynamites cricketers Essex cricketers Hampshire cricketers Hobart Hurricanes cricketers Jamaica Tallawahs cricketers Kochi Tuskers Kerala cricketers Kolkata Knight Riders cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Middlesex cricketers Rajasthan Royals cricketers Sylhet Sixers cricketers Wellington cricketers Coaches of the United Arab Emirates national cricket team Bangladesh Premier League coaches Dambulla Viiking NBC Denis Compton Award recipients