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Is Imran Khan the best Test pace bowler from Pakistan?

I saw entire career of Waqar. His mythical peak gets talked and many believe it due to not seeing his entire career. He wasn't that great against good teams even during his peak.

6 top test teams during Waqar's peak:

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Waqar's performance in test involving top 6 teams during his peak:

View attachment 149203
Who is the bowler in the history of cricket to take 200 tests wickets in the least number of ball bowled ??
 
Who is the bowler in the history of cricket to take 200 tests wickets in the least number of ball bowled ??

You couldn't cite single great series by Waqar like Wasim.

What did he do against the top tier teams in those 200 wickets? What is his collective perofmance against top 4-5 teams in those 200 wickets?
 
You couldn't cite single great series by Waqar like Wasim.

What did he do against the top tier teams in those 200 wickets? What is his collective perofmance against top 4-5 teams in those 200 wickets?
I know Waqar gets slammed a lot for mostly cleaning the tail but boy Pakistan would have won a lot of important games over the last decade if it had Waqar to wrap up the tail.
 
Imran Khan is the best Test bowler.

Wasim Akram is the best bowler.
The beauty is that both were allrounders in their own rights. Wasim could do fireworks with the bat when he wanted to and Imran was good enough to play as a batter alone throughout most of his career.
 
I know Waqar gets slammed a lot for mostly cleaning the tail but boy Pakistan would have won a lot of important games over the last decade if it had Waqar to wrap up the tail.
His yorkers would have certainly come handy.

One thing to remember though, tail of 90s are not tail of nowdays. So may not have been the same effectiveness, but Waqar surely would be far better in cleaning tails than most bowlers playing right now in world let alone Pakistani bowlers.
 
Imran is generally not talked about as a bowler but he is certainly the best one out there. His record is impeccable.
 
and, Imran for injured and was not able to bowl for almost three years at his peak. 1735876564300.png

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One of the game's all-round greats, he averaged 40.06 with the bat and 22.22 with the ball from his seventh to his 87th Test.

The finest cricketer from Pakistan, he led them to World Cup glory in 1992.

#OnThisDay The legendary Imran Khan turns 73
 
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Imran Khan was the most consistent.

Wasim Akram, the most skilled.

Waqar Younis, the most lethal.

I really can’t differentiate between them based on a few average points (and in Tests strike rate is more important so Waqar probably gets the edge anyway.)
 
Imran Khan was the most consistent.

Wasim Akram, the most skilled.

Waqar Younis, the most lethal.

I really can’t differentiate between them based on a few average points (and in Tests strike rate is more important so Waqar probably gets the edge anyway.)

There's no comparison between Imran or any other cricketer from Pak. The second best & extremely underrated cricketer from Pak is Mushtaq Muhammad.

Wasim is the third. After that it's Fazl, Hanif, & Javed.

Imran
Mushtaq
Wasim
Fazl
Hanif
Javed
Waqar
Younus
Inzimam
Zaheer

I would even put Fazl above Wasim but then Wasim also had batting potential which tilts the scales a bit.
 
There's no comparison between Imran or any other cricketer from Pak. The second best & extremely underrated cricketer from Pak is Mushtaq Muhammad.

Wasim is the third. After that it's Fazl, Hanif, & Javed.

Imran
Mushtaq
Wasim
Fazl
Hanif
Javed
Waqar
Younus
Inzimam
Zaheer

I would even put Fazl above Wasim but then Wasim also had batting potential which tilts the scales a bit.
That's a very high rating for Mushtaq. Why so high?
 
I say Wasim Akram is the best Test pacer from Pakistan.

I would put Imran Khan in 2nd position.
Imran khan was better than Wasim Akram in tests. Three of his six 10-wickets hauls are outside Asia.

Sydney 1974, Headingley (Leeds) 1987 and Georgetown (Windies) 1988, all of those tests won by Pakistan

Wasim was a better ODI bowler
 
In a Telegraph list- their respected cricket correspondent-Scyld Berry put IK as the 4th best fast bowler ever. I dont think that is true but it shows how much respect he is held in. He is certainly the best PK test bowler.
 
That's a very high rating for Mushtaq. Why so high?

Pak started super strong in terms of cricket because of Fazl, Khan (Muhamad), & Hanif but after the start our cricket absolutely nosedived. Our first 7 series saw us win 3, lose 2, & the other two were drawn but after that we had a period of 17 series and almost that many years where we only won two home series and were trashed by every one.

The cricketing DNA became spin heavy with dour batting which resulted in us either losing the series or drawing it barely.

Then came Mushtaq as a captain who brought the "rock and roll" culture to our cricket. Players shed the tag of being timid and stopped accepting that their skin color was a hindrance in their success & became more expressive. Fazl & Imran became the bulwarks of our pace bowling, bouncers at Lillee in Australia became the norm & the rest as they say is history.

Add to that, these are his cricketing numbers, a 39 bat & 29 bowling average. A truly forgotten great of the country.

1759665043044.png
 
Pak started super strong in terms of cricket because of Fazl, Khan (Muhamad), & Hanif but after the start our cricket absolutely nosedived. Our first 7 series saw us win 3, lose 2, & the other two were drawn but after that we had a period of 17 series and almost that many years where we only won two home series and were trashed by every one.

The cricketing DNA became spin heavy with dour batting which resulted in us either losing the series or drawing it barely.

Then came Mushtaq as a captain who brought the "rock and roll" culture to our cricket. Players shed the tag of being timid and stopped accepting that their skin color was a hindrance in their success & became more expressive. Fazl & Imran became the bulwarks of our pace bowling, bouncers at Lillee in Australia became the norm & the rest as they say is history.

Add to that, these are his cricketing numbers, a 39 bat & 29 bowling average. A truly forgotten great of the country.

View attachment 158537
On a personal level Mushtaq left deeply disappointed. I was in my late teens and I went to a League game to meet him and at the end of the game I saw a chance to shake hands and exchange pleasantries. As I approached him I saw a Pint of some beer in his hand, I was so disappointed and just left.
 
On a personal level Mushtaq left deeply disappointed. I was in my late teens and I went to a League game to meet him and at the end of the game I saw a chance to shake hands and exchange pleasantries. As I approached him I saw a Pint of some beer in his hand, I was so disappointed and just left.

Pakistan started an alcohol ban only in the 80s (the Zia era) and before that the drinking culture was pretty visible & common. Almost our entire team with the exception of Imran were known to go for a sip or two anytime they had a chance. The "rock and roll" culture that I mentioned in my post was a reference to it but since it's a personal choice of people I don't have any thing to add on it.

The thing is Muhammad family even until Shoaib Muhammad were an integral part of our cricketing culture & they have been wildly forgotten which is almost criminal. Mushtaq deserves recognition, I would put him in our all-time best 11 & there's a case for him to even captain the team whereas IK can focus on just being the superstar without the added burden of captaincy.
 
People mistake skill for greatness. Wasim was the most skilful, Imran was the best all round bowler, Waqar the most destructive.

But truth be told, I don’t really care which order people want to put time in terms of greatness. They were all awesome.

Wasim’s extraordinary skill may have been his downfall at times, he may have tried too much, and he bowled a lot of test spells at 2/3, 3/4 pace and that was by choice. Sometimes I wish he world have gone flat out more, he could have been more devastating overall.

Special mention for shoaib, he was in the same ballpark of ability as all 3, but didn’t play enough.
 
Best from Asia. His stats hurt because those injuries he had forced him to reinvent himself as a primary batsman.
 
yes, IK is the best fast bowler from Pakistan

to those who never saw him bowling live, he used to take the wickets of the top order batsmen

that is, he did not rely only on the old ball
 
Wasim Akram is the greatest test pacer of all time from Pakistan.

Wasim has over 400 Test wickets and over 500 ODI wickets.

Longevity matters also.
Absolutely not

Immy is the best Pakistani pacer

There is a difference between best and greatest. Greatest is just based on longevity etc.

Best means he was the best in terms of ability and impact. Won more games for his country etc

So immy khan wins easily


Like easyyyyy
 
Imran had no other pacer to support him but wasim had Waqar and shoaib... But TBH, we cannot undermine one bowler for the sake of other in this case... Both were top notch But Imran was definitely 1 step ahead with his batting and his captiancy burden.
 
Imran had no other pacer to support him but wasim had Waqar and shoaib... But TBH, we cannot undermine one bowler for the sake of other in this case... Both were top notch But Imran was definitely 1 step ahead with his batting and his captiancy burden.
No debate. Imran wins easy

Better stats. Better impact. Better performances. Took more top order wickets. Match winning spells in difficult conditions and had less support than what Wasim had in his prime.
 
IK vs Wasim away against non-minnows for their entire career,

1760012287791.png



Both have performed well, but NZ was the weakest team during most of Wasim's playing days. Wasim's has 5 5-fers out of his 13 away 5-fers just against NZ.

Without NZ,

1760012437907.png


Both stck up neatly in same palce with avg of 26-28 range. Just away is not fair so if we look home and away both for same teams,

1760012631244.png

Stats does not favour Wasim. Also, IK had ATG series in some tough tours.

In test cricket, IK has to be the best Pacers from Pakistan.
 
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