The greatest ODI XI of all time

#8 Wasim Akram

Sultan of Swing – Swing it like WAZ

Moving to the bowlers now, Wasim Akram is an automatic choice to lead any bowling attack in the world. The Sultan of Swing, arguably the greatest left-arm fast bowler the game has ever seen, bamboozled batsmen all over the world for almost 2 decades.

He had everything that one could ask from a fast bowler, be it In-swing, out-swing, seam movement off the pitch, pace, sharp bouncer, wide yorker, swinging yorker, reverse swing, slower balls and on top of all that an intelligent cricketing brain which could out-think the batsmen all the time.

Wasim Akram is the second highest wicket taker in ODI cricket with 502 wickets, second only to Murali’s 534. He was an attacking bowler in every sense of the word, boasting a strike rate of 36 balls per wicket and a meager 23 runs per wicket.

Mat	Inn	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	SR	Eco	4w	5w
356	351	18186	11812	502	5/15	23.52	36.2	3.89	17	6

As shown in the stats below, Wasim Akram was a handy lower order batsman who could strike big as indicated by his strike rate of 88.

Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	Ct	St
356	280	55	3717	86	16.52	4208	88.33	0	6	88	0

Perhaps, the best reverse swing bowling spell in an ODI match was bowled by Wasim Akram in the finals of the 92’ Cricket world Cup when he helped Pakistan clinch its one and only World Cup triumph. He was awarded the player of the match for his efforts with both bat and ball.

Contenders: Mitchell Johnson, Allan Donald, Dale Steyn and Zaheer Khan