Players who made their debut prior to 2003 & are still active cricketers

Nehra is a perfect exponent of how to swing the ball at pace

Younis Khan

Younis Khan, being an integral part of the Pakistan setup has hardly got his dues. He doesn’t look good to the naked eyes, but can accumulate runs at will. Most of his counterparts have bid adieu to the game, but Younis is standing rock-solid.

Younis lets his willow do all the talking. He was dropped from the ODI squad against Australia in 2004 citing drab performances in the previous series. Younis replied with 468 runs at an average of 156 with a top score of 213 in the Test series that followed. He also captained Pakistan to the World T20 title in 2009.

He has been in the thick of things for quite a long time and even at the age of 39, he doesn’t seem to drop his guard. He is currently the 13^th highest run-getter in Test cricket and also the highest run scorer for Pakistan in the game’s longest format.

Above all, he is within touching distance of becoming the first Pakistani to accumulate 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Also, he has got bucket-like hands in the outfield, which rarely spill catches.

Career Span: February 2000- Present (16 years and 8 months)

Tests: 111

ODI’s: 265

T20I’s: 25

Marlon Samuels

Tainted by match-fixing scandals and other unwanted controversies, the dingy dimension of Marlon Samuels’s career was more on show than his cricket. After making his Test debut at the age of 19, he was deemed to be something enormously special for West Indian cricket. Samuels’s stint with the West Indies team hasn’t seen a smooth ride thereafter.

He was handed over a ban of two years, following allegations of bringing disrepute to the game of cricket, which didn’t make it easy for Samuels to survive in the West Indies team. Just when his career graph took an upward leap, it crashed down prodigiously to make things worse.

At 35, Samuels is a stalwart in the West Indies line-up in all three formats of the game. With Caribbean cricket in dire straits in Test cricket, Samuels’s role becomes that much more critical in lifting them from the shambles.

Career Span: October 2000- Present (16 years and 1 month)

Tests: 71

ODI’s: 187

T20I’s: 51