Top 5 left-arm bowlers in One-Day cricket

Zaheer Khan

3. Zaheer Khan (India)

He burst onto the international scene as a raw 22-year old in the ICC Knockout Trophy at Nairobi in 2000, making his debut alongside the stylish Yuvraj Singh. ZaK, as he’s popularly known as, has been the mainstay of the Indian pace attack since the retirement of Javagal Srinath. Once a bowler focused only on pace, he has since transformed himself into a complete package – replete with slower balls, the in-swinging yorker and the reverse swing.

Zaheer’s bowling style has often been compared to that of Pakistani great Wasim Akram, and over a period of time, he did enough to justify the arguments. He has the ability to swing the new ball and reverse-swing the old, is a keen competitor and has gained enough mastery over line and length in order to keep a batsman guessing. He was a star performer for India in both 2003 and 2011 World Cups, emerging as the joint highest wicket-taker in the last edition.

Each time he has been laid low by injuries, ZaK has always bounced back admirably. Currently India’s second-most successful bowler, the Shrirampur lad may well become a complete fast bowler (a moniker once bestowed upon the fiery Dennis Lillee) if he manages to go injury-free for a long period of time. A spell at Worcestershire only served to increase the number of tricks he had up his sleeve – the “ZaK Attack” will be back sooner than anyone thinks!