After a brief hiatus from the profile articles of legends from various countries we are back with a bang with the legends of Pakistan cricket and the first player that we have chosen to do a profile article on is maybe one of the two greatest cricketers to ever play for the nation of Pakistan. This once in a generation talent was so good that the opposition batting line-ups used to be fearful of him during the 19 years that he played. We are talking about the great Wasim Akram in this article.
Wasim Akram is one of the greatest bowlers to ever play the sport of cricket and he was one of the highest wicket taker a by a fast bowler in test cricket and the second highest wicket taker in ODI History and he was a very good lower order batter as well so he was a proper all rounder. He served Pakistan cricket at the highest level for close to Two Decades and that is staggering. Let’s look at the Profile Stats and Records of the great Wasim Akram.
Profile :
Personal Information :
Wasim Akram was born on 3rd June 1966 in Lahore in Pakistan and since a very young age he was into fast bowling and was visible that he had special skills and if nurtured properly he will be one of the greatest ever. He was called the Sultan of Swing by his colleagues and his fans as he was the king of swing and no one could swing the ball more than him. He was also a very handy lower order left handed batter as well and helped the team in many situations. His height was 5 ft 11 inches which allowed him to get the ball to bounce a good deal.
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International Information :
He played for Pakistan for 19 years at the very top of his game from 1984-2003 and he left an everlasting legacy. His first test match was on 25th January 1985 against New Zealand and after 17 years of top level test cricket he played his last test match on 9th January 2002 vs Bangladesh. His ODI career was longer as he played his first ODI on 23rd November 1984 vs New Zealand and he played his last ODI match at the 2003 World Cup vs Zimbabwe in 2003. Very few have played better than him.
Also Read | Greatest Pakistani Cricketers
Career Stats :
Competition | Test | ODI |
Matches | 104 | 356 |
Runs scored | 2898 | 3717 |
Batting average | 22.64 | 16.52 |
100s/50s | 3/7 | 0/6 |
Top score | 257* | 86 |
Balls bowled | 22,627 | 18,186 |
Wickets | 414 | 502 |
Bowling average | 23.62 | 23.52 |
5 Wickets in an innings | 25 | 6 |
10 Wickets in a match | 5 | 0 |
Best bowling | 7/119 | 5/15 |
Catches | 44 | 88 |
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Records :
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64
Wasim Akram has the second most wickets in ODIs.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat- tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls
Akram holds the record for hitting the most sixes in a test innings which is 12 sixes when he made 257*.
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