Imran Tahir picks his favourite players, captains; backs India to beat New Zealand in WTC final

Imran Tahir is arguably the finest spinner to have donned the South Africa jersey, and his records speak volumes of his prowess. Be it restricting the run-flow or taking wickets in crucial intervals, the talismanic leg-spinner delivered more often than not whenever the captain showed faith in him. As of now, Tahir is retired from ODI and Test cricket and hasn’t played any T20I since 2019. However, he continues to ply his trade in T20 competitions worldwide.

The veteran leg-spinner is currently serving Multan Sultans in the 2021 edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2021. Tahir recently got featured in an interview where he made several interesting revelations and also presented his opinion on many topics. On being asked about his all-time three favourite spinners, the 42-year went with Pakistan duo Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed, alongside Australian great Shane Warne.

Tahir, while featuring in a YouTube video of Bohra Network, then was asked to pick his three favourite players from the current lot. To this, the Pakistan-born South African cricketer didn’t have any hesitation in selecting Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Babar Azam. While Dhoni, who retired from international cricket last year, is regarded as one of the finest wicketkeeper-batsman ever, Kohli and Azam have been tormenting bowlers across formats.

Imran Tahir picks his favourite captains

Continuing the trend of three, Tahir also went on to name his three favourite captains. Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla and MS Dhoni were the spinner’s picks in this department. While the star spinner played under Amla and du Plessis in international cricket, Dhoni has been his captain in the Indian Premier League.

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowler also revealed his first cricket salary, which was 3000. “My first cricket salary, which I remember was 3000 which I received from the Wapta department, which I am really proud of,” asserted Tahir. At last, the experienced cricketer also had to join the bandwagon of predicting favourites for the ICC World Test Championship final, which will be played between India and New Zealand. While Tahir expects close competition, he backed India to cross the line.

“I think the answer is tough for this as New Zealand have been dark horses. However, I’ll still go with India because their youngsters and senior players have been doing well in Test cricket. So, they have a very strong chance of winning the World Test Championship final.”