Throwback: When Hashim Amla picked the best fast bowler he ever faced

Hashim Amla, one of the best batsmen South Africa ever produced, decided to hang his boots from international cricket on Thursday. The 2019 World Cup turned out to be the last tournament he played for his country and the stylish batsman’s last knock was an unbeaten 80 against Sri Lanka, the ODI which South Africa easily won. The tournament, however, wasn’t a memorable one for Amla and with the age not on his side, sooner or later, he was expected to call it quits at least from the limited-over formats.

Over the years, Amla pummelled the various bowling attacks and it was an absolute treat to watch him bat. He mesmerised the fans scoring 9282 Test, 8113 ODI and 1277 T20I runs in his illustrious international career which spanned across 15 years and 349 international matches. However, despite scoring so many runs, Hashim Amla was troubled by a few of the bowlers which also included Josh Hazlewood who managed to get him out seven times in as many Test matches.

But the 36-year-old had admitted before that Mohammad Asif was the toughest bowler he ever faced in his career anywhere in the world.

Old video goes viral

An old video is once again being surfaced on Youtube ever since Hashim Amla announced his retirement. In the video, Amla could be seen praising Mohammad Asif for his exceptional swinging skills and also revealed that many batsmen across the world feared to face the Pakistan fast bowler.

“Mohammad Asif is the best bowler. I know he got banned for match-fixing. But at that stage, he was the best fast bowler I’ve ever faced. He was the one not quick, 135 kph may be, but his accuracy was phenomenal. He tested your defence to the maximum and funny enough as the years have gone by meeting other cricketers around the world and loosely chatting, so many of the guys have said exactly the same thing,” Amla had said in an interview.

With Hashim Amla hanging his boots from the highest level of cricket now, it remains to be seen if he will ply his trade in the T20 leagues across the world or prefer playing the domestic cricket.

Here’s the video: