Akram is extensively recounted as one of the biggest bowlers of all time. He is also regarded as “Sultan of Swing”. A left-arm fast bowler who could bowl with vast pace, he represented the Pakistan cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International (ODI) matches. In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the sole Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal swing yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as “the two Ws” of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has declared Wasim Akram as the fastest and the great bowler he faced for the duration of his illustrious 17-year international career.The pristine left-hander from the ‘Island of the Hummingbird’, Trinidad used to be unarguably one of the finest and most dependent searching batsmen of our time who remains one of the four batsmen of history barring Don Bradman, Virendar Sehwag, and Chris Gayle to score two triple centuries in Tests.
To put it simply — a magician with the ball. Pakistan’s most successful bowler in both Tests and One-Day Internationals, he is perhaps the greatest left-handed paceman of all time, and one of the best among all fast bowlers.
Cricket fever is always on for cricket fans, for more updates and news stay tuned to Criconet.