Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis
Akram and Waqar is legendary by numbers alone – 559 wickets in 61 Tests at an outstanding average of 22.12 and strike-rate of 45.65 despite bowling on some of the flattest and most unfriendly wickets for fast bowlers in the sub-continent.
However, numbers won’t be able to tell whole the story of this great partnership. The Sultans of Swing actually changed the art of fast bowling, sharing their spoils almost equally, Akram with 282 wickets and Waqar with 277. The exact use of reverse swing could make the ball talk at searing pace, working in tandem on the ball, with the help of the shine and rough surface.
Waqar used to intimidate the batsmen with his famous in-dipping yorkers and toe-crushers with a magical banana swing. Akram used to ran in with his left-arm, skiddy action and nipped them out with full-length deliveries which moved in and out viciously. Neither of them gave anything away and almost always looked like two violinists mesmerizing with their symphony without a spoken word, matching each other note for note.