Wahab Riaz

In May 2019, he was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup, after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named their final fifteen-man squad for the tournament.

In April 2018, he was named in Punjab's squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup. In March 2019, he was named in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's squad for the 2019 Pakistan Cup. He was the joint-leading wicket-taker in the tournament, with ten dismissals in five matches.

In September 2018, he was named in Kandahar's squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Brampton Wolves franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Cape Town Blitz team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament. In November 2019, he was selected to play for the Dhaka Platoon in the 2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League.

He was retained by Zalmi for the second PSL season in 2017. Peshawar won the 2017 competition and, as of the end of the 2017 PSL, Riaz is the leading wicket-taker with 30 wickets in 19 matches.

On 30 August 2016, he conceded 110 runs in his stipulated 10 overs, which is the second worst figures ever in ODIs.

Riaz was allocated as a Platinum category player in the 2016 Pakistan Super League players draft. He was bought by Peshawar Zalmi for $140,000 for the 2016 competition.

During a group stage match in 2016 against Quetta Gladiators, Riaz had an exchange of words and a physical tussle with batsman Ahmed Shehzad. The Pakistan Cricket Board imposed a fine on both the players and issued an official warning to them.

In Pakistan's opening matches of World Cup 2015, he took 1 wicket each against India &West Indies. He followed it by a man of the match performance against Zimbabwe in which he scored 54 not out off 46 balls and took 4 wickets. In the quarterfinal match against Australia, Riaz bowled a very aggressive spell. He showed some aggressive interaction by sarcastic clapping and a flying kiss to Shane Watson. ICC fined Riaz for the behavior.

After the tour of Ireland, Riaz entered talks with Kent, eventually signing to play for them in county cricket. The club had suffered injuries to their fast bowlers and Riaz was drafted in to bolster their line up. He made his twenty20 debut for Kent against Glamorgan on 11 June. He took a single wicket, that of Chris Cooke, and guided his team to victory with 32 not out, hitting the winning runs after being sent in up the order. On his home debut Riaz took a hat-trick – dismissing Chris Taylor, Ed Young, and Richard Coughtrie – and recording figures of 5 wickets for 17 runs (5/17) against Gloucestershire to help his team to an eight-wicket victory. It was the second time a player had taken a T20 hat-trick for Kent, and was the first time Riaz took five wickets in the format, beating previous best bowling figures of 3/14. During his spell with Kent Riaz took 13 first-class wickets at an average of 33.53, 9 in list A cricket at 13.33, and 20 wickets in t20 matches at an average of 19.85.

In March 2011 he played for the Pakistani team in at least four matches with an above average performance. However he really came in the limelight at the Pakistan vs India semi-final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, when he replaced Shoaib Akhtar and took 5 wickets.

Riaz made his Test debut against England in the third test of the 2010 series. England batted first and Riaz took 5/63 in the first innings. In Pakistan's first innings he came into bat at number 3 and made 27 runs.

He next played for Pakistan in the Test series against South Africa in October 2010 he participated in 4 ODIs. He was selected to play in the first Test later in that series he took two wickets those of Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla however towards the end of the day he picked up a side strain. He did not bowl the following day. A scan showed that Riaz had picked up an injury which takes 4–5 weeks to recover from and thus he missed the rest of the Test series.

Wahab Riaz (Urdu: وہاب ریاض ‎; born 28 June 1985) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a left-arm fast bowler and a right-handed batsman. He frequently bowls at speeds of around 90 mph (144.8 km/h) and has reached 96 miles per hour (154 km/h) . His all round performance in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 earned him world wide recognition. In August 2018, he was one of 33 players to be awarded a central contract for the 2018–19 season by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). In September 2019, Riaz announced that he would be taking a break from red-ball cricket to focus on the shorter formats of the game.

Wahab Riaz was born on 28 June 1985. His father, Muhammad Sikandar Riaz Kasana, was a businessman. His nickname is Vicky, and he was educated at Aitchison college. His hometown is Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Riaz is married to Zainab Chaudhary and together they have a daughter whose name is Eshal. He is a practicing Muslim and his nationality is Pakistani.