Zaheer Khan is arguably the very best left-arm quick bowler India has produced to this point, and whereas his profession numbers communicate for themselves, there may be one batsman who can validate it greater than all different Zaheer bowled to throughout codecs.
Zaheer, along with his potential to maneuver the brand new ball each methods and reverse-swing the previous ball, was a troublesome buyer to face and had a particular liking for left-handed batsmen; however none greater than former South Africa captain Graeme Smith.
“He was somebody towards whom you’ll at all times wish to be in your guard,” Smith had mentioned in an interview with cricket.com.
However there isn’t any doubt that Zaheer had Smith’s quantity each time the 2 had a face-off, each in white-ball and red-ball cricket.
The 2 performed towards one another in 11 Assessments, the place Zaheer dismissed the South African opener 7 instances.
In white-ball internationals, Zaheer obtained the higher of Smith 6 instances in 14 ODIs and as soon as in two T20Is.
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“Zaheer was one of many skillful bowlers I’ve confronted, particularly to left-handers,” Smith mentioned within the interview. “He obtained the ball to swing away and had a fantastic change of tempo. He bowled nicely with the reverse-swinging ball.
“He actually obtained the higher of me on a few events! However sure, he was actually one of the crucial skillful bowlers in my total profession, of all who I’ve confronted.”
Zaheer performed 92 Assessments, 200 ODIs and 17 T20Is earlier than retiring and took 311, 282 and 17 wickets respectively.
