Waqar Younis: Like lightning - A statistical analysis of the King of Reverse Swing

Since the resumption of cricket post-World War II, spinners dominated the bowling scene. Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Richie Benaud, Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine, Subhash Gupte, Lance Gibbs and Bishen Bedi were some of the most miserly exponents of that art, perplexing batsmen with their variations the world over.

But the scene changed in the 1970s, Australia broke the spin formula and in the form of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson had a pair of fast bowlers who were intimidators as much as they were wicket takers. The 1974/75 Ashes and Frank Worrell Trophy 1975/76 were the most brutal examples of fast bowlers ripping through the opposition. The Australian match atmosphere (a jeering crowd, on field sledging) only added to the aura the fast bowling combination of Lillee and Thommo carried.

This tradition was carried forward by the West Indies, which relied almost entirely on a four-pronged pace attack throughout the 1980s and stamped itself as the most overwhelmingly dominating test side since Don Bradman’s Invincibles of 1948. The blows endured by Brian Close, Mohinder Amarnath, Mike Gatting, Graeme Wood, Robin Smith (to name a few) were a telling definition of the reputation that fast bowlers carried in that era.Waqar Younis only helped further this reputation when he smacked Sachin Tendulkar on the jaw at Sialkot in 1989 as India was holding on to draw a historic Test series in Pakistan. A bowler of raw pace, back in 1992, Waqar Younis was a subject of much interest to purists the world over, amazed at the phenomenon of reverse swing as they were at its legality.

Waqar was an innovator with the ball and an artist who made it walk and talk like few have ever done. He, along with Wasim Akram was instrumental in making Pakistan one of the most competitive sides of the 1990s (W/L ratio of 1.52 was the third best in that decade after Australia and South Africa, and second best after the 1980s)

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Test Matches

Waqar Younis was at his peak as a Test match bowler between 15 Nov 1989 and 28 Sep 1994. During this period, he was undoubtedly the most prolific wicket-taker in the world, taking 187 wickets in 32 matches; 20 wickets more than the second placed Wasim Akram, in almost the same number of matches. Waqar took an astonishing 5.8 wickets per match, comfortably ahead of Wasim (5.4) and Ambrose (5.15).

But what’s most amazing about these statistics is Waqar’s unbelievable consistency of bagging wickets by the handful. Waqar was talking a 5-for once every 3 innings, which is way ahead of Wasim (4.3) and Ambrose (5.8). Waqar’s average is only behind Curtly Ambrose (18.71) while his strike rate of 35.4 is clearly ahead of the next placed Wasim Akram (46.6).

Table 1: Top Bowlers in Test Matches (15 Nov 1989-28 Sep 1994)

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	Average	S/R	5WI	10WM
Waqar Younis	32	187	18.85	35.4	19	4
Wasim Akram	31	167	20.46	46.6	13	2
Curtly Ambrose	31	159	18.71	51	10	3
Merv Hughes	36	158	25.99	54.9	4	0
Craig Mcdermott	34	151	26.21	55.4	6	2
Shane Warne	27	124	23.62	67.4	6	1
Danny Morrison	27	103	32.78	59.1	7	0
Courtney Walsh	31	100	28.66	65.7	2	0
Phil DeFreitas	26	99	27.58	59.1	3	0
Devon Malcolm	27	97	33.73	61	5	2

During this period, Waqar was also the highest wicket-taker in wins, taking 123 wickets in 15 matches with a jaw-dropping WPM (Wickets-per Match) ratio of 8.2. Curtly Ambrose (98) and Wasim Akram (92) are the next placed bowlers again. His average and strike rate are the best of the lot too.

Waqar also took 13 of his 22 5-fors in these 15 matches. Such a skewed concentration of wickets may show that Waqar peaked very early but while he did, he stood head and shoulders above the others.Table 2: Most Wickets in Wins (15 Nov 1989 – 28 Sep 1994) – (Qual – Min 50 Wickets)

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	Ave	S/R	5WI	10WM
Waqar Younis	15	123	14.46	28.8	13	4
Curtly Ambrose	15	98	14.98	42.3	7	3
Wasim Akram	13	92	15.67	36.6	7	1
Merv Hughes	17	80	22.65	52.6	1	0
Craig McDermott	15	74	22.9	51.8	4	2
Shane Warne	12	69	19.85	59.8	3	0
Anil Kumble	8	55	19.36	50.3	4	1
Courtney Walsh	14	54	24.27	54.4	0	0

During his career, Waqar was amongst the most formidable wicket takers in winning causes. His tally of 222 wickets is bettered only by Glenn Mcgrath (297) and Muttiah Muralidaran (236). His average is also an impressive 18.20, and only Ambrose, Murali, Donald, Kumble and Wasim have a better average but the numbers are packed closely.

A common sight after a Waqar Younis delivery

One thing that stands out for Waqar yet again is his strike rate, which is better than any bowler who took more than 100 wickets in matches won during his career span. Incidentally, Waqar’s strike rate of 43.4 is the second best in the history of cricket (After Dale Steyn) if the cut off is taken at 200 wickets and the fourth best when the cut-off is reduced to 100 wickets.

Table 3: Most Wickets in Wins (15 Nov 1989 – 2 Jan 2003) (Qual – Min 100 Wickets)

Player	Matches	Wickets	Ave	S/R	5WI	10WM
Curtly Ambrose	33	184	15.19	41.9	12	3
Muttiah Muralitharan	29	236	16.20	46.2	22	10
Allan Donald	33	187	16.79	35.5	14	3
Shaun Pollock	34	166	17.19	45.3	9	1
Anil Kumble	23	170	17.34	45.2	12	3
Wasim Akram	33	188	18.19	41.6	12	2
Waqar Younis	39	222	18.20	35.0	14	4

One of Waqar’s (and Wasim’s) outstanding ability was to ball Yorker/full-length balls at high speed which resulted in him taking a lot of wickets in the form of a bowled/LBW dismissal.

212 out of this total 373 career wickets came in the form of the two modes of dismissal, a proportion (56.8%) which is only behind England’s Brian Statham (57.1%). Ray Lindwall and Wasim Akram are the other two bowlers to take more than 50% of their wickets in this manner.

(Video courtesy: robelinda 2 YouTube channel)

One thing to note in the complete list is that of the 19 bowlers who have a proportion of greater than 40% bowled/LBW, few (6) bowled in the 2000s, and even fewer (2) made their debuts in the same decade (Rangana Herath and Matthew Hoggard). Batsmen have either found a technique to avoid the ball from hitting the timber, or bowlers have lost the penetrative guile.Table 4: Bowled/LBW wickets (% of total Wickets)

Bowler	Bowled/LBW Dismissals	Total Wickets	% (Bowled/LBW)
Brian Statham	144	252	57.14
Waqar Younis	212	373	56.84
Lindwall	128	228	56.14
Wasim Akram	221	414	53.38
Graeme Swann	127	255	49.80
Joel Garner	126	259	48.65
Imran Khan	176	362	48.62
Michael Holding	116	249	46.59
Fred Trueman	143	307	46.58
Kapil Dev	199	434	45.85

Waqar vs Wasim

The two W’s formed a deadly duo

Waqar formed with Wasim Akram, one of the most deadly and effective fast bowling partnerships of all time. In the 61 matches that they played together, they took almost the same number of wickets, while Waqar took wickets at a better strike rate, Wasim outdid him in average, 5-fors and 10-fors.

Also, note that differences in these parameters are almost negligible as both bowlers were neck and neck in terms of wicket taking abilities.Table 5: Waqar Younis (Matches Played with Wasim)

Matches	Inns	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ	S/R	5WI	10WM
61	110	6351	277	22.92	3.27	42	17	3

Table 6: Wasim Akram (Matches Played with Waqar)

Matches	Inns	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ	S/R	5WI	10WM
61	109	6016	282	21.33	2.6	49.2	20	4

In the 28 matches that they played and won together, there again is little to differentiate the two. They took almost the same number of wickets, gave away the same number of runs per wicket, and took the same number of 5 and 10-fors. Nevertheless, Waqar comes up trumps when it comes to strike rate, proof of the mindset of attacking bowling ingrained into him by his mentor Imran Khan.Table 7: Waqar Younis (Matches Won with Wasim)

Matches	Inns	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ	S/R	5WI	10WM
28	56	2969	165	17.99	3.15	34.2	10	2

Table 8: Wasim Akram (Matches Won with Waqar)

Matches	Inns	Runs	Wickets	Average	Econ	S/R	5WI	10WM
28	55	2902	161	18.02	2.62	41.1	11	2

A closer look at the numbers of Wasim and Waqar does bring out one facet that catapults Wasim into the category of all-time great and Waqar into those who touched and missed – Consistency.

Akram’s numbers did not vary no matter what the opposition and the venue was, whereas at least one of the two had to be in Waqar’s favour for him to do well.

Breaking down the matches they played together by opposition, the difference between Akram’s highest and lowest average vs an opposition is only 12.21, whereas, for Waqar, the difference is 39.06.

A similar story prevails when it comes to strike rate as Wasim was at his best against every opposition (difference: 21.3) while Waqar’s performance varied as per the opposition (difference: 62.5).

Table 9: Wasim vs Waqar (Performance vs Oppositions) – Matches Played Together

	Waqar Younis	Wasim Akram	Waqar Younis	Wasim Akram	Waqar Younis	Wasim Akram
Opposition	Wickets	Wickets	Average	Average	S/R	S/R
India	8	21	48.75	23.76	80.2	53.6
Australia	24	42	34.37	21.66	66	52.4
New Zealand	45	48	17.86	16.41	38.9	40.9
West Indies	47	57	23.12	19.64	39.50	42.10
Sri Lanka	48	35	21.27	20.20	36	49.3
England	44	37	25.93	28.62	46.1	62.2
Zimbabwe	34	34	21.91	20.11	41.8	47.2
South Africa	14	8	15.14	24.37	27.7	51.7
Bangladesh	13	0	9.69	0	17.7	0

One Day Internationals

Quick and pinpoint accuracy

Excellent as he was in Test matches, Waqar’s ODI exploits are a notch above his Test performances. To this date, he remains one of the only 4 bowlers to have taken more than 400 ODI wickets (Muralitharan, Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas are the others).

Younis’ peak as an ODI bowler was the 7 and half year period between 1 May 1990 and 5 Nov 1997. His tally of 243 wickets is comfortable ahead of the second placed Wasim Akram (211), his strike rate is bettered only by team-mate Saqlain Mushtaq and only Saqlain, Wasim and Donald have a better average.Table 10: Top ODI bowlers (1 May 1990 – 5 Nov 1997)

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	Average	S/R	4W	5W
Waqar Younis	141	243	22.10	29.0	9	8
Wasim Akram	140	212	21.83	34.6	11	3
Anil Kumble	124	167	27.09	39.6	5	2
Javagal Srinath	123	158	28.96	40.4	2	2
Allan Donald	89	150	22.08	32.2	5	2
Aaqib Javed	119	138	30	42.1	2	4
Curtly Ambrose	111	136	25.02	43.3	2	2
Saqlain Mushtaq	71	133	19.69	27.6	5	4
Shane Warne	76	129	22.16	33.0	9	1
Sanath Jayasuriya	136	123	33.39	41.0	3	2

Waqar’s ability to take wickets by the handful is amply reflected in ODIs too. Waqar holds the record for having taken the most 5-fors in ODI history (13), and Muttiah Muralitharan is the only other bowler to have taken 10 or more. Waqar has also taken the most number of wickets (127) in 4 and 5 wicket haul in ODIs, followed by Murali (112) and Lee (101).

The opposition Waqar tormented most during his career was the New Zealand side, against whom he took 79 wickets in 37 matches. The 5 five-fors he took against them is also a record for the most taken against one opposition in ODIs.

Waqar is one of the most formidable match-winners in ODI history, his tally of 278 wickets in wins is surpassed only by Murali, Akram, Mcgrath, Lee and Pollock.

Table 11: Most Wickets in ODI wins

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	Average	S/R	4W	5W
Muttiah Muralitharan	202	368	18.23	29.7	13	9
Wasim Akram	199	326	18.86	30.5	12	6
Glenn McGrath	171	301	17.94	29.4	8	7
Brett Lee	153	297	20.54	26.7	12	8
Shaun Pollock	191	290	19.67	35.1	10	2
Waqar Younis	149	278	18.76	25.9	10	11
Shahid Afridi	218	277	25.55	35.3	4	9
Chaminda Vaas	168	228	22.16	35.1	6	3
Sanath Jayasuriya	233	222	27.53	37	7	2
Shane Warne	124	214	21.43	31.4	9	1

Pakistan’s remarkable ODI fortunes in the 1990s were contributed to, apart from its top players, by one venue; Sharjah. Not only has Pakistan won more matches than any opposition (79), but amongst teams which have played at least 20 matches there, Pakistan has the highest Win/Loss ratio (1.975) as well, followed by Australia (1.75) and West Indies (1.00).

Driving Pakistan’s victories was Waqar Younis whose 122 wickets at Sharjah remains the most wickets by a bowler on a single ground in ODI history, followed by Wasim Akram (114) at Sharjah and Shakib Al Hasan (94) at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium, Mirpur.

It would not be fair to say that Waqar Younis’ stature is that of a path-breaker. Waqar was one of the first bowlers who did away with the West Indian formula of intimidatory short-pitched bowling and revelled in a brand of bowling fast, full-pitched deliveries aimed at the stumps.

Many bowlers have tried to emulate his mastery, but it is a testament to his genius that few have matched this skill which he once said he picked during his college days.

Waqar was, and remains, a giant of the game in every sense of the word.

(Statistics from ESPNCricinfo)