1.Saeed Anwar (1990-2003)
One of the most stylist left handers to play in the 90’s, Saeed Anwar had been the star performer for Pakistan in the one dayers playing as an opener.
He was one of the best timers of the cricket ball and was the master of finding gaps on the field. He was never a slogger as we see in the modern opening batsmen. But he had the knack to keep on ticking the scoreboard, by rotating the strike during the midovers.
But Anwar was an injury prone, as he always had the fitness issues throughout his career. Even during his world record knock of 194 against India in 1997, he played with the help of a runner for the most part of the innings. This was the highest individual score in ODI till 2009 when Zimbabwean Chris Coventry scored 194*.
He played 247 ODIs and scored 8824 at an average 39.21 with 20 centuries and 43 fifties which is impressive. But he was not a regular member of Pakistan’s test team, as he managed to play just 55 tests scoring 4052 at an average of 45.52 with 11 tons and 25 half centuries.
When his daughter lost her life, Anwar moved away from cricket for several months. And he had a memorable comeback in the 2003 World Cup, scoring an excellent century against India. Later he retired from international cricket.
Had he been given more opportunity of his courtesy of his fitness, Saeed Anwar would’ve been one of the greatest left handed batsmen in the world cricket.
2.Saqlain Musthaq (1995-2004)
An off spinner who was about rule the dynasty of spin in the world cricket, but after a few years he moved into the shadows of his early success. He was none other than Saqlain Musthaq.
He made his international debut in the year 1995 and stunned the world by his dozens of variations. This includes the quicker one, off cutters, floaters and the world famous doosra, which he invented on his own. He used to try out spinning a table tennis ball using weird grips and he was stunned to see the ball in different directions. This gave birth to his wide variety of deliveries.
Just a few days to complete 2 years in international cricket Saqlain became the fastest bowler to reach 100 wicket mark in his 53rd ODI and later in his 78th ODI his tally reach 150, then 200 wickets in 104th match and 250 wickets in 138th ODI. All these records are yet to be broken. When he played 138th match, Saqlain was jus 24years old!
Then after, he was literally in and out of the squad. Later in his 46th test Saqlain took his 200th wicket becoming the fastest Pakistani spinner to do so. When he had an off day during Sehwag’s grand knock of 309 at Multhan, where Saqlain had the figures of 1 for 204, making the selectors not to include him for the national team forever.
He had played 49 tests and took 208 wicket including 13 five wicket hauls and 3 ten wickets hauls in a match. In ODIs, Saqlain played 169 matches collecting 288 wickets at an average of 21.78, including 6 five-for’s and a hatrick at World Cup-1999. His average is jointly (with Alan Donald) the best for any bowler in ODI who have captured 200 wickets.
He was one of the first spinners who had expertise in bowling at the depth overs, where he was successfully bamboozling the batsmen with his varieties. This can be seen in his economy rate of just 4.29.
Saqlain also has a century and two fifties in test cricket as well. When he was out of the national side, Saqlain settled in England to play county cricket for Surrey. Totally in the first class career he took 833 wickets in 194 matches with 60 five wicket hauls and 15 ten wicket hauls in a match and he played 323 List-A matches and took 478 wickets at an average of 23.55 with 7 five wicket hauls. This talented off spinner also had a stint with Lahore Badshahs in ICL where he introduced a new variety, which he named it as ‘teesra’.
But always, he was hungry for wickets and fresh varieties. Saqlain should’ve played atleast 17-18 years of International cricket, to finish as one of the legends of the game.
3.Azhar Mahmood (1996-2007)
A bowling all-rounder, who had the dreams of becoming a successor of Imran Khan in both tests and one dayers. Azhar Mahmood had a tough time in keeping his place in the national side, after becoming a household name in his country.
When Azhar Mahmood, made ODI debut in the Sahara Cup under Ramiz Raja, he had a decent tour of Canada. Later when was in the test squad had a dream start with the bat, scoring 3 hundreds in his first 8 matches. This includes his man of the match with 128* and 50* versus South Africa in his debut. Unfortunately, he played only 21 tests scoring 900 runs at an average of 30.00 and took just 39 wickets.
In ODIs, he had played 143 matches picking up 123 wickets with 3 five wicket hauls being 6/18 as the best figures. He also has 58 madiens overs in his International careers to mention. Later when selectors rejected him, Azhar went to England and signed Surrey as an overseas player in the year 2002. He was very popular in both limited overs as well as in the longer formats. In his 176 first class matches, Azhar scored 7703 runs with 9 centuries ad 42 fifties at an average 31.83 with the bat and, 611 wickets at an average of 25.10 with 27 five wicket hauls and 8/61 being his best figure.
He was one of the first players to play TwentyT20 during the inaugural TwentyT20 Cup in 2003. He finished 2nd in the highest wicket takers next to his skipper Adam Hollioake, where both steered their team to the T20Championship title.
He was a typical Pakistani in mastering the art of reverse swing, as Azhar was able to reverse relatively new ball during the depth overs of T20 matches. This made him one of the greatest T20 bowlers in the world.
He played 214 and took 241 wickets with 5/24 being the best figure. And also he scored 3922 runs at the strike rate 135.24 including 2 centuries and 18 fifties, being 106* as the best score. Currently he is the third highest wicket taker in T20 history. He has the experience of playing in 10 different T20 tournaments across the world.
He would’ve been a great fast bowling all rounder in the world cricket like Imran khan, Kapil dev, Jaques Kallis or even better, had he played closed to 400 international matches.
4.Saeed Ajmal (2008-present)
A player unlike others who have featured in this series of “We were in wrong Cricketing nations”, Ajmal is still playing International cricket. But he made a late entry to the Pakistani dressing room in 2008 at the age of 32.
His entry had given a new hope to the Pakistan team as they wanted a quality spinner in their playing 11. When Shoaib Malik started concentrating more on his batting, his skill as a spinner started to diminish. The veteran Shahid Afridi needed someone to support from the other end to hunt the opposition in pair. This gave selectors to have a go at their 32 year old off spinner.
When he started playing for his nation, Ajmal’s wide variety of arm ball, off spinners, quicker ones and doosra made him to take a lot of wickets, fairly at regular intervals. His first year of international level saw the best bowling unit for any team in limited over international cricket, which includes Mohd Amir, Mohd Hafeez, Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq and Saeed Ajmal. The same attack gave them their first WorldT20 title in 2009.
In 2011, he evolved as a very good test bowler by becoming the highest wicket taker during the year by picking up 50 wickets in 8 tests. Ajmal was so matured that, he used to reserve his key weapon, the doosra as the stock ball. This quality made him a good allround spinner.
So far in his 35 tests, Ajaml took 178 wickets at an average of 28.10 with 10 five wicket hauls and 4 ten wicket hauls in a match, 7/55 being the best. His talent to play better in the shorter forms of the game made him a champion bowler. He currently holds the record of highest wicket taker in T20 Internationals (85) in 63 games with economy of 6.34, which is acceptable in this format. Ajaml kept himself busy, playing in different T20 tournaments across the globe.
He played 111 ODIs taking 183 wickets at an average of 22.18 with astonishing economy rate of 4.13 with 2 five wicket hauls, where the best figure stands at 5/24. Ajmal had a few issues with his bowling actions, which made him stay away from cricket for some time. During this period, he had the great Saqlain Musthaq to guide him and alter his action to satisfy ICC. This kept him away from cricket since 8 months, including the World Cup-2015.
Had he played about 300 ODIs and 100 tests, Ajmal definitely would’ve been one of the top wicket takers in world cricket. Unfortunately, this is not possible because he started the journey at the International level very late.
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