Bismah Maroof

Bismah Maroof (born 18 July 1991) is a Pakistani cricketer who plays as an all-rounder, batting left-handed and bowling right-arm leg break. In June 2022, she became the most runs scorer for Pakistani women's cricket team in both ODI and T20I formats (more than 2000 runs in each).[1][2] She has appeared for Pakistan in over 200 matches, captained the side between 2013 and 2020, and was the first woman to score 1,000 runs in ODIs for Pakistan.[3] In April 2021, Maroof took a break from cricket to give birth, before confirming her return to availability in December 2021 ahead of the 2022 World Cup.[4][5][6] She has played domestic cricket for Lahore, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and Pakistan Universities.[7][8] As of 2022, she currently holds the world record for having scored the most number of runs in the history of Women's ODIs without a single career century with 3,017 runs.[9]

Bismah Maroof
Personal information
Full name
Bismah Maroof
Born (1991-07-18) 18 July 1991
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight-arm leg break
RoleAll-rounder
International information
National side
ODI debut (cap 45)13 December 2006 v India
Last ODI14 September 2023 v South Africa
ODI shirt no.3
T20I debut (cap 13)29 May 2009 v Ireland
Last T20I4 September 2023 v South Africa
T20I shirt no.3
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2006/07Lahore
2009/10–2018/19Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited
2009/10Pakistan Universities
2014Lahore
Career statistics
Competition WODI WT20I WLA WT20
Matches 108 108 180 169
Runs scored 2,602 2,202 5,080 3,924
Batting average 27.97 27.52 37.91 33.53
100s/50s 0/14 0/11 5/30 0/26
Top score 99 70* 159 77*
Balls bowled 1,691 898 3,012 1,484
Wickets 44 36 97 69
Bowling average 25.56 23.30 17.52 18.24
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0
Best bowling 4/7 3/21 4/7 3/6
Catches/stumpings 34/– 29/– 61/– 59/–
Source: CricketArchive, 12 February 2023
Medal record
Representing  Pakistan
Women's Cricket
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place2010 GuangzhouTeam
Gold medal – first place2014 IncheonTeam

On 23 March 2023, Bismah was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan's fourth-highest civilian honour.[10]

Early life

Bismah was born into a Kashmiri family. Her parents being well-educated, were in favour of her pursuing an academic career and establishing herself in the world of medicine. As she grew into her late teens, her interest for cricket developed, and that too to such an extent, that while at Lahore College for Women University, her passion peaked and so she decided to step out of academics, after completion of high school, into the cricketing sphere, leaving behind the ambitions of becoming a doctor. She broke into the Pakistan national set-up at the age of 15.

International career

She made her ODI debut on 13 December 2006 at the age of 15 against India during the 2006 Women's Asia Cup and she made an impressive start to her ODI career scoring 43 runs off 76 balls while opening the batting.[11] She made her WT20I debut on 29 May 2009 against Ireland during the 2009 RSA T20 Cup.[12]

She was part of the Pakistan squad at the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia. She was part of the team that won a gold medal against Bangladesh at the 2010 Asian Games in China.[13] She was named vice-captain of the Pakistan squad[14] that won a second successive gold medal against Bangladesh at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea.[15] In 2016, she was named as the captain of the Pakistan women T20I side.[16]

She was ruled out of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup due to a hand injury and was replaced in the squad by Iram Javed.[17] She later replaced Sana Mir as the captain of the Pakistan team with the latter being sacked after a disastrous 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup tournament where Pakistan lost all their matches.[18] On 11 October 2017, Bismah was selected as captain of the Pakistan women's cricket team ahead of the New Zealand series in the UAE.[19] In the series, Pakistan won their first ever ODI against the New Zealand in the third match.[20]

In March 2018, under her captaincy Pakistan clean swept Sri Lanka 3-0 in the ODI series on the Sri Lanka tour.[21][22] This was only the second time that Pakistan team won an ODI series 3-0.[20] In the T20 series, Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka 2-1.[23][24]

She was the leading run-scorer for Pakistan in the 2018 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup, with 143 runs in five matches.[25]

In October 2018, she was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies but opted to stay aside from captaincy which made room for Javeria Khan to lead the side.[26][27] Prior to the 2018 ICC WT20 campaign, she underwent an eye surgery for a sinus problem and it raised doubts over her cricketing future.[28] In January 2019, she returned as skipper of the side for the home WODI and WT20I series against the West Indies.[29] In October 2019, she was named as the captain of the Women's Global Development Squad, ahead of a five-match series in Australia.[30]

In January 2020, she was named as the captain of Pakistan's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia.[31] However, on 28 February 2020, in the match against England, she broke her right thumb.[32] She was ruled out of the rest of the tournament, with Nahida Khan named as her replacement and Javeria Khan captaining the side in her absence.[33]

In December 2020, she was shortlisted as one of the Women's Cricketer of the Year for the 2020 PCB Awards.[34] In April 2021, Maroof announced that she was taking an indefinite break from cricket "as motherhood beckons".[35][36] She became the first Pakistani cricketer to be a beneficiary of the Pakistan Cricket Board's maternity policy for the players which allows benefits for expecting mothers and fathers.[37][38][39] After giving birth to a baby girl in August 2021, in December Maroof announced that she was returning to availability for Pakistan ahead of the 2022 World Cup.[4][40][41]

In January 2022, she was named as the captain of Pakistan's team for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.[42][43] In May 2022, she was named as the captain of Pakistan's team for the cricket tournament at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.[44] In 2023, Bismah was awarded with Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in honour of her remarkable services to Pakistan Women Cricket Team.[45]

References
  1. "Pakistan Women Cricket Team Records & Stats | ESPNcricinfo.com". Cricinfo. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  2. "Pakistan Women Cricket Team Records & Stats | ESPNcricinfo.com". Cricinfo. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  3. "Pathmakers – First to 1000 ODI runs from each country". Women's CricZone. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  4. "Pakistan batter Bismah Maroof confirms availability for 2022 World Cup". CricTracker. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  5. "Cricket's mothers have it better now than ever (but not all of them)". Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  6. "The Spin | Pakistan's Bismah Maroof radiates the power to inspire change in cricket". the Guardian. 9 March 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  7. "Player Profile: Bismah Maroof". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  8. "Player Profile: Bismah Maroof". CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  9. "Records | Women's One-Day Internationals | Batting records | Most runs in a career without a hundred | ESPNcricinfo.com". Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  10. "Babar Azam, Bismah Maroof awarded Pakistan's civilian honours". ESPNcricinfo. 23 March 2023.
  11. "Full Scorecard of IND Women vs PAK Women 1st Match 2006/07 - Score Report | ESPNcricinfo.com". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  12. "Full Scorecard of PAK Women vs Ire Women 2009 - Score Report | ESPNcricinfo.com". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  13. "Final, Asian Games Women's Cricket Competition at Guangzhou, Nov 19 2010". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  14. "Pakistan women set to defend cricket title". The Express Tribune. 11 September 2014.
  15. "Pakistan clinch thriller to win gold". ESPNcricinfo. 26 September 2014.
  16. "Maroof named Pakistan Women T20 captain; Mir retains ODI role". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  17. "Injury ends Bismah Maroof's World Cup". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  18. "Mir axed as ODI captain, Maroof to lead side". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  19. "Maroof-led Pakistan squad named for New Zealand series". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  20. Aliani, Shahbano (1 June 2018). "Bismah Maroof at the helm: Getting to know the Pakistan women's cricket captain". Dawn.
  21. "Pakistan Women pulverise Sri Lanka, earn praise from PCB Chairman Sethi". Dawn. 24 March 2018.
  22. "Maroof, Mir seal ODI series for Pakistan". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  23. "Pak women beat Sri Lanka women to take T20I series 2-1". The News International. 1 April 2018.
  24. "Javeria, spinners help Pakistan seal 2-1 series win". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  25. "Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup, 2018, Pakistan Women: Batting and bowling averages". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  26. "Bismah Maroof returns for Women's World T20 but not as captain". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  27. "Bismah Maroof returns to Pakistan squad, Javeria Khan stays on as captain". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  28. "Bismah Maroof reveals she feared for playing career after sinus operation". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  29. "Bismah Maroof takes back captaincy from Javeria Khan". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  30. "Bismah to lead Women's Global Development Squad". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  31. "Pakistan squad for ICC Women's T20 World Cup announced". Pakistan Cricket Board. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  32. "Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof out of women's T20 World Cup with injury". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  33. "Bismah Maroof ruled out of ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020". Pakistan Cricket Board. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  34. "Short-lists for PCB Awards 2020 announced". Pakistan Cricket Board. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  35. "Motherhood beckons, taking indefinite break from cricket: Bismah Maroof". CricBuzz. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  36. "Bismah Maroof takes indefinite maternity leave, as PCB mulls pregnancy provisions in contracts". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  37. Narayanan, Lavanya Lakshmi. "Women's Day 2022 - From Jess Kerr to Bismah Maroof - 22 inspirational women in sports". Sportstar. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  38. Raghunandan, Vaibhav (9 March 2022). "The way sport plays when it comes to maternity support policy". Business Standard India. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  39. "PCB launches parental support policy for all cricketers". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  40. Acharya, Shayan. "Women's World Cup: Stars to watch out for". Sportstar. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  41. "Bismah Maroof available for 2022 World Cup; Urooj Mumtaz quits as PCB selection chair". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  42. "Bismah Maroof returns to lead Pakistan in World Cup 2022". Women's CricZone. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  43. "Bismah Maroof returns as Pakistan captain for Women's ODI World Cup". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  44. "Women squad for Commonwealth Games announced". Pakistan Cricket Board. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  45. "Bismah Maroof getst Tamgh-e-Imtiaz". Today 24 News. 24 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
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