Watch: Wasim Akram names the toughest batsman he bowled to

Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram in a recent conversation with the International Cricket Council (ICC) was asked to share anecdotes about the toughest opponents he faced during his career with Pakistan. Akram named some of the legends of the game who he played against, also the one who was absolutely brilliant and was at ease playing against him and bowling partner Waqar Younis.

Akram said, “I played against greats of the greats of the game starting from Viv Richards to Desmond Haynes to Gordon Greenidge to Allan Border to Sunil Gavaskar when I started off all these massive massive names everybody was unbelievable to play against and for me, these were my heroes, I used to have their posters in my room. I would read cricketing magazines in Urdu, their records.”

Recalling his childhood when he would save money to buy magazines to read about his favorite cricketers and their records he added, “Every month I used to save money to buy the magazine called Akhbar e Watan that was in Urdu. I think every era had their greats but I have to pick one batsman who played really well against me and Waqar (Younis), it has to be Marin Crowe,”

Crowe was someone who according to Wasim was the most effective player against their most lethal weapon, reverse swing. “He got runs against that reverse swing, I was bowling 145-150kph so was Waqar. In the series in 1993 in Pakistan, he got two hundreds in two Test matches. Waqar got 30 wickets in three Test matches and I got 16 in two Test matches, Test match and a half I got injured then.” He said.

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“Then, of course, the great Brian Lara, he was unbelievable, he was very rare, he was very different, with his back lift and all, he got lot of runs against us. We had some great battles against the likes of another maestro Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid. It’s always fun to play against the best of the best and these guys were the ultimate.” He concluded saying.

Watch: Wasim Akram names the toughest batsman he bowled to: