Ajmal Shahzad joined Notts on a three-year contract at the end of the 2012 season, leaving his native Yorkshire where he was the first Yorkshire-born cricketer of Asian descent to play for the county.
A combative fast bowler, Shahzad made his international debut for England in a Twenty20 International in February 2010. He went on to play three Twenty20 internationals, 11 One Day Internationals and one Test match (against Bangladesh in 2010) for his country.
Much then was expected of him when he came to Trent Bridge but despite some good individual performances, injury and mixed fortunes on the pitch led to him being released at the end of the 2014 season, with one year of his contract remaining. He joined Sussex and moved eventually to Leicestershire before bringing his playing career to a close in 2017.
Since then, he has moved into coaching, he was initially head coach of senior cricket at Ampleforth College in York, then moved to the MCC to lead their young cricketers programme. For the 2021, Ajmal joined Derbyshire as assistant coach with particular responsibility for bowling.
Huddersfield-born Shahzad played 21 First-Class matches for Nottinghamshire, taking 46 wickets at 40.58; in 19 List-A games his tally was 33 wickets at 21,93 and in T20s he registered 16 wickets, at 32.31 in 18 matches. These figures reflect his value as a white-ball bowler.
February 2021
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 624