Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who struck a century in each innings in the second Test against England, on Thursday admitted that he thought of quitting cricket after his failure in the first innings of his comeback Test against Bangladesh two years ago.
"It was my comeback Test after being overlooked for nearly six months following the disaster in World Cup where I scored 19 runs. And when I was dismissed for 10 in the first innings, I thought this place does not belong to me anymore," Inzamam said in an interview in Faisalabad.
"The same night when I was out for 10, I discussed my retirement plans with Saeed Anwar and he advised me to first play the second innings of the Test and then we would talk about it.
"The second innings of the Multan Test changed my career," Inzamam, who today became only the fifth Pakistani batsman to score a century in each innings of a Test, said.
By scoring his second century of the Test, Inzamam also became Pakistan's highest century-maker with 24 hundreds eclipsing Javed Miandad's record of 23 tons in 124 Tests.
Inzamam has scored 7,955 runs in 104 Tests and is now only 877 short of breaking Miandad's record of 8,832 runs for Pakistan.
Inzamam is also one of four cricketers along with Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sourav Ganguly to have scored more than 10,000 ODI runs.
In that Test match against Bangladesh in Multan in 2003, Inzamam pulled Pakistan from the jaws of defeat by scoring an unbeaten 138 that set up a one-wicket win for the home team.
Chasing 261 for victory, Pakistan had collapsed to 205 for eight at one stage.
"The next couple of days changed everything for me as I not only managed to restore the confidence of my fan club but was also handed Pakistan's captaincy. It has been an amazing turnaround.
"It virtually strengthened my belief in Almighty and that he only has the powers to give you respect or disrespect. No matter how talented or skillful or strong you may be, you are nothing unless there is will of God," Inzamam said.
Since taking over from Rashid Latif as captain in that Multan Test, Inzamam has scored six centuries and nine half-centuries in 16 Tests. He has scored 1,515 runs in 29 innings at at average of nearly 61.
"The thing that forced me to think about my retirement was that I had played my cricket with honour and distinction and I did not want to put myself in a position where I was considered a liability or unwanted by the selectors. But where there is will, there is a way and God has helped me all the way since then," Inzamam said.
