Wisden overview
A bubbly, chubby legspinner with googlies aplenty, Mushtaq Ahmed is styled on his hero Abdul Qadir, whom he succeeded in the team. He is a matchwinner with a full house of legspin variations. At his best he is not far behind Shane Warne, but he does not get the in-drift and rip that makes Warne unique and he gets less bounce because of a lower arm. Mushtaq has also suffered the vagaries of the Pakistan system. But his enthusiasm remains undimmed, despite being in and out of the team in recent years. Some of his most memorable performances have been away from home, in England and Australia, and he played a key role in propelling Imran's Tigers to World Cup glory, memorably snaring Graeme Hick with one of his googlies. Mushtaq is a compact though not especially competent batsman who fends too gingerly to hint at permanency at the crease. Kamran Abbasi

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