Pakistan cricket board has always been known for producing great fast bowlers and no doubt, up till now, some of the most iconic bowlers came into the cricket world to conquer the dream.
Just like the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar was the most brutal fast bowler in cricket history.
Every batsman was scared of him because he used to take long run-ups and run like a lion to bowl. He destroyed every batsman and got himself the name “Rawalpindi Express”.
At his time, he was the fastest bowler on the planet, and he did everything to be the best at what he did.
He never backed down from any organization. He was widely famous all over the world, and that popularity also landed him in hot controversies as well.
Early Life
On the 13th of August 1975, Shoaib Akhtar was born into a Punjabi-Muslim family in the small town of Morgah in Rawalpindi, Punjab. Shoaib’s father, Mohammad Akhtar, was a hard-working man, and he was very religious.
He even worked as a night watchman at a petrol station belonging to the Attock oil refinery. Shoaib, from an early age, was very much into cricket. Despite being a good student, he disrupted his studies to attend trials for the PIA team’s Karachi division to be held in Lahore.
As mentioned, he belonged to an underprivileged family, and that’s the reason he didn’t even have enough money to buy a bus ticket.
He worked on his skills with full dedication and began his “List A” career during the 1993/1994 season and his first-class career during the 1994/1995 one. He caught the eye of Majid Khan.
Right after that, his bowling grabbed the attention of the chief executive of PCB and then he headed to the Pakistan A team’s tour of England, in 1996.
There he made a great impact, and then he was awarded his maiden Test cap against the West Indies in 1997.
International Career
Shoaib Akhtar’s initial run in the International career was not impressive enough, he went on various tours, but that didn’t make any great impact, and only took 18 wickets in 8 tests and 16 innings. His success began in the 1999 pre-World Cup series against India.
His spells in Sharjah and then at the 1999 World Cup left everyone speechless. Even after the World Cup, no one could resist praising Shoaib Akhtar.
His one of most significant performances was in India in 1999, when he took eight wickets in the Asia Test championship match at Calcutta – including the wickets of Indian batsmen Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar when he bowled both batsmen off successive deliveries.
It was the first time he ever bowled to Sachin Tendulkar.
In 2003, he was selected for the World Cup campaign, in which the Pakistan cricket team performed very poorly, and after the campaign ended, he was dropped from the squad.
But he was called in as PCB had no other choice, although the team lost the series against New Zealand and India in 2003.
Back in 2005, he regained his popularity when England visited Pakistan and he performed brilliantly. He used a new technique, “slower deliveries,” which proved to be unplayable by the English batsmen. In that series, he was the highest wicket-taker with seventeen wickets.
But on the other hand, he was highly criticized from all corners. He was fired by Worcestershire chairman John Elliot for his lack of commitment and star attitude.
His performance was also acknowledged by the English captain, Michael Vaughan, who remarked, “I thought he (Shoaib) was a big difference between the two teams.”
Among all of his achievements, he set the record for the fastest bowl to date at 161.3 kph after the introduction of speed-measuring devices in international cricket in 1998.
Injuries made him stay away from cricket
There was another thing that made him stay away from cricket, and that was his injuries. His consistent injuries were bad luck for him. From 2007 to 2009 he played various series, but also faced injuries and that led him to rehabilitation.
In 2010, he returned and joined the short format. He was added to the squad for the 2010 ICC Twenty20 World Cup, but he was replaced by Umar Gul due to injury. Shoaib Akhtar bowled well at the time when Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were suspended due to their spot-fixing scandal.
The 2011 World Cup was the last campaign he ever played for the national side. During the campaign, he had already announced that he would retire after the tournament.
But his announcement cost him the world cup. He was dropped from the group matches and was not included in the quarter-final either.
Shoaib Akhtar has become an analyst. He recently came into the limelight when he left the show and PTV took him off the air during the T20 World Cup campaign.
Shoaib Akhtar no doubt gave some of the most iconic moments to his fans and left his mark on the cricket fraternity. No one can compete with his speed and dedication to cricket.
