Wasim Akram, a name which dominated the swing world of cricket for a quite some time in the 90s, was born on 3rd June 1966. A legendary bowler who was a reason behind Pakistan’s golden era along with the veteran Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and the young Shoaib Akhtar. His impeccable skill of swinging the ball earned him the title, ‘Sultan of Swing'.
Akram was born in Lahore and began his career from Islamia College as an opening bowler and batsman. He was just 18 when the then captain of Pakistan cricket team Javed Miandad noticed this special talent. He was inevitably selected for the New Zealand tour. In his second match, he took ten wickets and announced him with absolute dominance. Those ten wickets were special because it was only the beginning of his career and Pakistan team was minus Imran Khan for that test match. Later Imran Khan’s guidance helped him to grow as one of the finest and deadliest fast bowlers of all time. Akram became the first bowler in the history of One Day Internationals to scalp 500 wickets.
Wasim played one of his most memorable matches in the 1992 world cup final. The two magical deliveries with the old ball which went through the defense of Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis remained in every cricket fan's mind forever and drove the match towards Pakistan. However, the 1996 world cup showed the opposite story as Wasim had to miss the quarter-final against India at Bangalore due to injury. Pakistan lost and Wasim became a national villain for skipping the match against India. In 1999 and 2003 World Cup he also failed to bring success to Pakistan.
In the test, Wasim showed his brilliance as well and took as many as 414 wickets. He achieved the feat of taking two hat-tricks in both formats of the game. Although he wasn’t a famous all-rounder, his bat often produced classy innings. Test cricket saw him adding 2898 runs with three centuries. The Country cricket also got a glimpse of this legend as he took 374 wickets at an average of 21.65 in 91 matches for Lancashire. There’s a reason why ‘Akram for England’ slogan became famous. Wasim helped Pakistan to reach the top and hence became a part of 90s cricket folklore forever.
