Career
He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. Rao can be recognised by his unnaturally slim build and his "puffing" bowling action. Although he is very accurate in his bowling and can take crucial wickets, he tends to be expensive at times.
With a bowling action similar to that of Glenn McGrath, he took more than 200 wickets in Pakistani cricketing competition, before being added to the Pakistani national team, having taken ten wickets in the Patron"s Trophy Final in 2004.
He was rated the best bowler of the year in domestic circuit by former Pakistan"s fast bowler Waleed Malik. Iftikhar was included in the Pakistani team for the one-day series against India and made his Paktel Cup debut seven months later.
He played three games, and took 5 wickets, despite a decent haul, his inability to bowl at the death stood out. With the re-emergence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, chances for Iftikhar Anjum seemed to be few and far between from now on barring injury to any of the other major players.
He has been signed by Surrey as their overseas player for the first part of the 2010 English season, while Piyush Chawla is playing in the IPL.