After we talked about the past fast bowling greats of Pakistan cricket, it is time to talk about the fastest fast bowler of all time and someone who was a top level entertainer in cricket over the years and he used to bowl from just ahead of the boundary ropes and he was one of the best fast bowlers seen in the last 25 years and Pakistan were lucky to have Shoaib as the next generation after the Wasim and Waqar pair.
Shoaib Akhtar is one of those Bowlers whom the batters did not want to face when they played as they feared that he might bowl a body ball or a Yorker that would take out their toes. They feared that he would get them out a lot of the time by his sheer pace and skills. Shoaib Akhtar played for Pakistan for many years and since him there has been not many Bowlers who are on his level. Let’s look at the Profile Stats and Records of Shoaib Akhtar.
Shoaib Akhtar Profile :
Personal Information :
The full name of Shoaib Akhtar is Muhammad Shoaib Akhtar and he was born on 13th August 1975 in Rawalpindi in Pakistan and since when he was young he was inclined to bowl just fast and he also had good control along with bowling fast so he was given proper coaching and he was groomed. He was called the Rawalpindi Express by all the fans and his colleagues as well as he was the fastest thing from Rawalpindi. His height was 6 ft which allowed him to bowl lots of bouncers and this helped him to get a lot of wickets in this manner. He was also a decent right handed batter.
International Career :
He played international cricket for Pakistan from 1997-2011 and he was a great servant of Pakistan cricket for all of those 14 years and everyone was entertained whenever he played. He played his first test match on 29th November 2007 vs West Indies and after 10 years of staying at the top in test cricket he played his last test match on 8th December 2007 vs India. Likewise his ODI career started on 28th March 1998 when he played against Zimbabwe and after 13 years of domination in the 50 over format he played his last ODI match on 8th March 2021 vs New Zealand. He also played T20I cricket for 4 years from 2006 till 2010.
Career Stats :
Competition | Test | ODI | T20I |
Matches | 46 | 163 | 15 |
Runs scored | 544 | 394 | 21 |
Batting average | 10.07 | 8.95 | 7.00 |
100s/50s | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 |
Top score | 47 | 43 | 8* |
Balls bowled | 8143 | 7764 | 318 |
Wickets | 178 | 247 | 19 |
Bowling average | 25.69 | 24.97 | 22.73 |
5 Wickets in an innings | 12 | 4 | 0 |
10 wickets in a match | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Best bowling | 6/11 | 6/16 | 3/38 |
Catches | 12 | 20 | 2 |
Shoaib Akhtar Records :
Second most runs in the number 11 batting position in ODIs (43 Runs)
He is the ninth fastest to 200 ODI wickets (130 Innings)
Fastest Delivery: His most iconic achievement was bowling the fastest recorded delivery in cricket history at 161.
Also Read: Waqar Younis Profile Stats and Records
