Several of Glamorgan’s former overseas players have made their mark in international cricket during the past months, including Usman Khawaja who scored a career-best 232 last week in Galle to help lay the foundations for an emphatic innings victory for Australia over Sri Lanka. (writes Andrew Hignell)
The left-handed batter, who was born in Islamabad, played for Glamorgan during 2018 and created a Club record by posting centuries in each of his first three matches for the Welsh county. Last week, in his 79th appearance for Australia in Test cricket, Usman completed his Test-best score with his innings of 232 being the fifth highest in Test cricket by a player to have represented Glamorgan and only surpassed by Brendon McCullum (302), Viv Richards (291), Javed Miandad (280*) and Sourav Ganguly (239).
Two other Glamorgan old boys have Test Match double-hundreds to their name – Ravi Shastri who scored 206 against Australia at Sydney in 1991/92, and Jason Gillespie, who struck a memorable and unbeaten 201 for Australia against Bangladesh in 2005/06 whilst acting as night-watchman in the game at Chittagong which also proved to be his final appearance in Test cricket.
Back in November Ajaz Patel, the left-arm spinner who played for Glamorgan during 2022, helped to bowl New Zealand to a 25-run victory over India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Ajaz took 5/103 and 6/57 to steer his side to victory in what was his 21st Test Match, with all of his international appearances taking place in games outside New Zealand. Ajaz had previously enjoyed personal success at the Mumbai ground having claimed 10/119 in the Test Match against India in 2021/22 but despite his efforts on this occasion New Zealand lost the match.
Although he was on the losing side last week at Galle, Asitha Fernando has also been in decent form with the ball for Sri Lanka in both red- and white-ball cricket for Sri Lanka over the past few months with the right-arm seamer winning the Man-of-the-Match award in their One-Day International against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland. In April Asitha is set to become the first Sri Lankan to represent the Welsh county and become the 92nd name on the list of Glamorgan players to appear in senior internationals