Pakistani International leg spinner Imad Wasim joined Nottinghamshire for the 2019 Vitality Blast campaign, playing seven matches and helping the County to a place at T20 Finals Day. He re-appeared for the 2020 competition and went one better - playing in the Outlaws side that won the trophy at Edgbaston.
Syed Imad Wasim Haider was born on 18 December 1988 in Swansea, during the period when his father worked in the UK as an engineer. His parents moved to Pakistan when he was a young child and he was raised in Islamabad. He first came to cricketing prominence as a member of the victorious Pakistan side in the ICC Under-19s World Cup of 2005/06. Shortly afterwards, he appeared in senior cricket in Pakistan when he featured for Islamabad Leopards in both List-A and T20 matches and the following year he made his First-Class debut for Islamabad in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Wasim achieved full International recognition in 2015, when he was capped by Pakistan in both T20 and One-Day International cricket. He subsequently played for his country in the ICC World T20 of 2015/16, the Champions Trophy of 2017 and the ICC World Cup of 2019. Very much a white-ball specialist, Wasim had appeared in 52 List-A and 35 T20 Internationals when he joined Nottinghamshire in late July 2019.
Imad Wasim was no stranger to domestic T20 tournaments. He had played for Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League, Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League and Islamabad Leopards and later Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League. He had also some experience of playing in Nottinghamshire – as a teenager back in 2007, he had a stint with Papplewick and Linby in the Notts Premier League, playing several games alongside Luke Fletcher. In 2019 Imad appeared at Trent Bridge for Pakistan against England in a One-Day International and in Pakistan’s opening match of the 2019 World Cup against West Indies.
His Nottinghamshire debut came in the Blast fixture at Derby and he played a total of seven T20s for the County, often appearing as part of a three-man spin attack with Samit Patel and Matt Carter. He made a valuable all-round contribution, claiming 10 wickets and scoring 39 runs from his position in the middle-order. In the home quarter final against Middlesex, Wasim had excellent figures of 2-16 from his four overs, including 13 dot balls. He returned to Pakistan after this game to prepare for the upcoming series with Sri Lanka and so missed Finals Day at Edgbaston.
Imad Wasim has played in further limited-overs Internationals for Pakistan and was chosen in their squad for the re-arranged tour of England in late summer 2020. At the close of that tour, he re-joined The Outlaws and played a significant role in that Vitality Blast campaign.
He returned again for part of the 2023 Vitality Blast campaign, playing three matches in which he took four wickets and had a top score of 31no away at Somerset.
October 2023
See Imad Wasim's career stats (to date) here