Salman Butt was a young talent who was set to take the Pakistan cricket team to new heights before the notorious Lord’s spot-fixing incident in 2010.
Salman Butt was born in the Punjabi city of Lahore on October 7, 1984.
He is a left-handed opening batsman who captained Pakistan in the 2010 Test series.
Background
When Salman Butt first played for Lahore Whites in 2000, he was just 15 years old. His performance at the junior level earned him a place in Pakistan’s A squad.
Debut
On September 3, 2003, he made his Test debut in Multan against Bangladesh. In a game that Pakistan won by one wicket, he scored 12 and 37 runs.
Pakistan had a wide pool of openers at the time, so the selectors passed on the young Salman.
Due to rain, his ODI debut on August 25, 2004, was called off without a bowl being bowled.
Rise to Glory
On November 13, 2004, Salman Butt made his mark in international cricket with a match-winning 108 runs against arch-rivals India at Eden Gardens. He picked India as his favourite foe, scoring his first four ODI hundreds against them.
In one-day internationals, his best performance came against Bangladesh in 2008, when he scored 136 runs off 124 deliveries.
He has three hundreds in Test cricket, including a hard-fought century against Australia in Sydney in his fourth outing.
Captaincy
On July 17, 2010, Salman Butt was elected Pakistan’s test captain, succeeding Shahid Afridi. In the first match against Australia, he led his team to victory.