Raees Mohammad

Raees came from a large and famous Pakistani cricketing family. His brothers, Wazir Mohammad, Hanif Mohammad, Mushtaq Mohammad and Sadiq Mohammad played Test cricket for Pakistan.^[3] His nephew, Shoaib Mohammad, also represented Pakistan at Test level, as well as playing One Day International cricket.^[4] His son, Asif Mohammad, played first-class and List A cricket.^[5]

He died in Karachi on 14 February 2022, at the age of 89.^[1][6]

Raees started his first-class career for Karachi and Sind against Commonwealth XI in December 1949 at Karachi Gymkhana Ground.^[7] He played his next match against the rest in March 1953 in which he scored 8 and 66 runs.^[8][9] In the next two seasons, Raees played eight matches, aggregating 603 runs, including his career best 118 not out against Sind.^[10][11] He also took 15 wickets in the 1954–55 season.^[12] In the final match of the 1954–55 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, he made his second century, 110 not out, against the Combined Services. He also achieved his best bowling performance in the match, taking four wickets for 82.^[13]

In the same season, he was named 12th man for the Dhaka Test match against India, the first ever hosted by Pakistan.^[1]

From 1955 to 1958, he played nine matches, scored 341 runs averaged under 25 and took 10 catches.^[10][12]

During Raees' next three seasons—1959–60, 1960–61 and 1961–62—he played in two, one and three matches scoring 68, 12 and 117 runs respectively; his highest score remained 73 against Karachi Blues, in the semi-final of the 1961–62 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.^[10][14] He played for the last time in the 1962–63 Pakistani domestic season, playing five matches, scoring 192 runs at the average of above 27, including a half century.^[10] In all, Raees played 30 first-class matches and scored 1,344 runs at the average of 32.78, including two centuries and eight half centuries. He also took 33 wickets and 21 catches.^[2]