- “How is Imran Khan still part of this list?”
- “How is he even featured in this catalog after retiring decades ago?”
- “How can he still be relevant after almost 33 years?”
These were the comments and reactions flooding all over social media. These outbursts occurred after a graphic popped up during the Australia vs. West Indies first Test a few days earlier. The graphic represented a list of some notable stats that were meant to highlight the impact of Australia’s current captain, Pat Cummins. He was positioned at number 2 on the list, which was genuinely astonishing to consider.
Though no slight to Pat, it was the name perched at the very top of that list that got everyone talking. Three decades since he last wore the whites, and yet, there he was still dominating the tables.
This stat was about “most test wins as captain,” and the name occupying the first spot on the list was “Imran Khan.”
For a moment, it seemed like an astonishing development when people were crediting him for this monumental record, doing so with genuine surprise. That, though, was refreshing to see, yet their astonishment felt laced with a hint of irony. Why were they bewildered in the first place? Why the shock at all? This is Imran Khan we’re talking about, arguably Pakistan’s greatest cricketer and, quite convincingly, a strong contender for the title of Pakistan’s finest bowler as well.
These, of course, are weighty claims, particularly when one might ask: how could such a title lean toward Imran, especially when Wasim and Waqar graced the very same country? But there’s a wealth of evidence and statistical reasoning to support that view.
Was Imran Khan truly a better bowler than Wasim Akram & Waqar Younis?
Firstly, if we consider only those bowlers in Pakistan’s cricket history who have taken over 300 wickets, there’s only one bowler who averages below 28.3 against all oppositions and in all countries. He is, of course, Pakistani, but he’s not Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis. It’s the great Imran Khan, the indomitable force of nature.
Moving forward, here’s something even more extraordinary to consider: he’s also the only Pakistani fast bowler with more than five ten-wicket hauls to his name. He has six ten-wicket hauls.
Imran Khan’s career average, strike rate, and economy rate are all better than Wasim Akram’s. That’s something quite staggering.
From raw stats, it’s worth transitioning to impact and workload. Richard Hadlee (arguably New Zealand’s greatest cricketer ever) is often glorified a lot, and deservingly so, for carrying New Zealand in the 80s era. It’s even said that if anyone ever elevated New Zealand to relevance, it had to be Hadlee. But above all, if he’s predominantly credited for something, it’s his immense workload. We often see Richard Hadlee receiving a great deal of praise for being a lone warrior. This is indeed true, but if we consider Imran’s support bowlers, they were also very similar in a lot of contexts to that of Hadlee’s support bowlers. Imran Khan’s support bowlers, Sarfraz Nawaz (32.75 average), Abdul Qadir (32.80), and Tauseef Ahmed (32.17), were comparable in quality to Richard Hadlee’s support bowlers, including Chatfield (32.17), Snedden (37.91), and Cairns (32.26), with similar averages and secondary roles.
Consequently, throughout his career, Imran Khan also had to bowl more overs per innings than Wasim or Waqar. Imran bowled more overs per innings (27.29) across his career (88 Tests, 3,875.4 overs) than Wasim (25.54 overs, 104 Tests, 4,214.3 overs) and Waqar (19.88 overs, 87 Tests, 2,704 overs).
Yet despite all of this, from 1982 to 1989, Imran Khan had scored 1,971 runs in 54 innings at an average of 49.27. Only five players (Miandad, Border, Zaheer Abbas, Dean Jones, and Vengsarkar) scored more runs at a better average.
But Imran Khan was an all-rounder, so he was known for conjuring magic from all fronts. During the very same period, he also picked up 210 wickets in 43 Tests at an average of around 18.76. No bowler took more wickets at a better average in this period. How insane this looks.
Comparison with other all-rounder trios:
It’d be safe to assume that among the all-rounder trio of Hadlee, Botham, and Kapil Dev, Imran Khan was arguably the most consistent and popular all-rounder. There are a lot of pegs to justify these arguments.
- From raw numbers, Imran was the only one among the quartet (Imran, Hadlee, Botham, Kapil) with a Test career batting average above 35 (37.69) and a bowling average below 25 (22.81). Hadlee’s bowling average (22.29) is slightly better, but his batting (27.16) is weaker, and Botham (33.54 batting, 28.40 bowling) and Kapil (31.05 batting, 29.64 bowling) have lower batting and higher bowling averages, giving Imran a clear statistical edge as an all-rounder.
- If we only consider head-to-head comparisons involving Imran and these magnified all-rounders, Imran edges out here, too. Imran and Kapil collided head-to-head 20 times. In those games, Imran outperformed Kapil in both batting (~40.00 vs. ~25.00) and bowling (~18.50 vs. ~30.00). Imran also dominated Botham in head-to-head comparisons across 15 matches, with batting (~42.00 vs. ~25.00) and bowling (~17.50 vs. ~32.00), reinforcing his career statistical edge.
Similarly, Imran outperformed Hadlee in batting (~38.00 vs. ~20.00), though Hadlee had a slightly better bowling edge (~18.00 vs. ~20.00).
- Imran Khan never declined in Test cricket. In fact, in the last 10 years of his career, Imran played 51 Tests from 1982 to 1992, with a batting average of 51.34 (>50) and a bowling average of 19.16. So, even based on the last phase of his career, it could be confidently assumed that Imran Khan is arguably the only all-rounder after Sir Garfield Sobers to merit a place in a Test side based on either batting or bowling alone in his last 10 years. His 51.34 batting average rivals specialist batsmen, and his 19.16 bowling average surpasses most specialist bowlers.
Imran Khan’s peak, a true phenomenon!
It’s slightly unfair that Imran’s legacy is sometimes limited solely to the World Cup. Of course, his being Pakistan’s only skipper to deliver an ODI World Cup to the nation, he deserves every bit of respect for it. However, it doesn’t merely define the icing on the cake. Imran’s true legacy was in Test cricket. The peak Imran was something else — brutal, thrilling, unimaginable, vintage.
Imran’s Test career started back in the 70s, but perhaps it was in the early 80s when Imran reached his peak. In 1982, at the age of 30, Imran perhaps clicked his peak. It was the time for his life within to switch from gills to lungs. He took 62 wickets in just nine Tests with an unbelievable average of 13 in that very same year.
He was appointed captain of the Test team in the same year, 1982. After completing his first year as Test match captain, he took 88 wickets in 13 Tests with some unbelievable match-winning performances. How were these performances? A throwback to his role in the famous 1982–83 Test series would perhaps describe it best. India toured Pakistan for six Tests from December 1982 to January 1983. Imran Khan was the captain for all the Tests. Pakistan won the series 3–0, with 3 draws. And how about Imran’s role in that series? On Christmas Day, in Karachi, he became the first Pakistani bowler to take 200 wickets. He ended with 8–60, including 5–3 in his last 25 balls. But this was just one match.
He followed this magnificent performance with another stellar performance at Faisalabad. He took 11 wickets with the ball and scored 117 off just 121 balls. This is part of the world record that he became only the third player who had taken a five-for in each innings of a Test and scored a ton in the same Test. This list includes Alan Davidson, Ian Botham, and Imran Khan, and has now also been joined by Shakib Al Hasan.
This is indeed remarkable, but it’s even more awe-inspiring to consider the fact that he was doing all of this with a developing stress fracture. Unfortunately, however, this stress fracture saw him sit out for almost two years.
After two years, when Imran finally made a comeback, it was 1985. He naturally took some time to rediscover his rhythm. He led Pakistan to a monumental 1–0 Test series win in India in 1987 (averaging ~40 with the bat, ~20 with the ball) and followed with a memorable 1–0 triumph in England in 1987 (~50 batting, ~18 bowling). Imran Khan was also instrumental in securing at least three draws against the West Indies in the 1980s (Faisalabad 1986, Karachi 1986, Bridgetown 1988), contributing immensely with the bat (e.g., 61 in Faisalabad) and the ball (e.g., 7/115 in Bridgetown).
Also read: Celebrating Greatness: PCB Welcomes Four Cricket Legends to the PCB Hall of Fame 2024
Imran Khan, the fast bowling genius!
Imran Khan was a mastermind with the intellect of the game and supreme at his craft. At the peak of his career, he knew what had to be done with his tools and the execution of his skill sets. He was lethal with conventional and reverse swing at high pace. A run-up that nearly started level with the third or fourth slip, a hypnotic approach, with the upper body just turning forward. And the cold-blooded character to his demeanor, a compensating device to keep him from loving the game so much that he freezes in action. He was coming and obliterating the opposition out of the water.
Viv Richards himself was in awe of his bowling mastery. He called Imran one of the fiercest competitors and said that no matter how confidently you were batting, he would always have a delivery that could crash through and dismantle you.
His well-recognized mate, Wasim Akram, was also full of praise for his skills. Wasim recalled Imran advising him to “bowl with intent” and use reverse swing tactically.
The verdict
Pakistan cricket has a rich history. Imran Khan was actively part of only one chapter of that history. There are a plethora of players who have emerged after him. Some players have scored more runs than him, some have taken more wickets than him, but Imran Khan would remain the finest player his country has produced. And he’ll likely stay there for a long time unless some extraordinary career opportunity appears.
And this is something that doesn’t require validation from any particular sect or group within the country. It should be an unsullied, uncorrupted belief: soundproof, waterproof, bulletproof. PTI or PML-N, liberal or conservative, pro-establishment or anti-establishment, even Indian or Pakistani, there should be unanimous agreement: Imran Khan is Pakistan’s greatest cricketer ever. There should be no room for revision. No force yanking at our sleeves. The architecture of our psyches should be that, without exerting any effort or even thinking about it, without considering any voice piping up in our head, we should acknowledge the great man.
