Owais Alam Shah (born 22 October 1978 in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan) is a cricketer who plays for Middlesex and has appeared for England in a number of One Day Internationals and four Test matches. A cricketing prodigy as a teenager, Owais Shah began his career playing cricket for Wycombe House Cricket Club breaking records at the club, he was a complete all rounder, he was a classy yet destructive batsman and one of the quickest bowlers in the county for his age. He made his first-class debut at age 17 in 1996 and won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1997. In early 1998 he captained England to victory in the Under 19's World Cup in South Africa. He made his ODI debut against Australia at Bristol. Later that summer, he made 62 against Pakistan, and in 2001 also, Shah was named by the Cricket Writers' Club as their Young Cricketer of the Year. His maiden ODI century came against India at The Oval on 5 September 2007, when he made 107* off 95 balls. Later in the same match, he bowled in an ODI for the first time, and with his 17th delivery, took his first ODI wicket, the victim being the Indian captain Rahul Dravid. Shah toured Sri Lanka with England in late 2007, and then played in the ODI series against New Zealand in early 2008. While he had a disappointing ODI series, he top-scored with 96 in the first warm-up match to enhance his claims to the Test squad. In July 2008 he helped Middlesex win the Twenty20 Cup with a match winning innings in the final with 75 runs scored off just 35 balls, the highlight of which was three successive sixes over mid-wicket off Kent off-spinner James Tredwell. On February 16 2009, in the third test vs. West Indies, Owais Shah reached 13,000 first class runs. With England players free to participate in the second season of the Indian Premier League, Owais Shah was signed by the Delhi Daredevils for $275,000 during their second player auction.
