5 cricketers whose late entry cost them legendary status

#5 Saeed Ajmal

Ajmal’s tricky balls have caught out many a batsmen

Ajmal’s career started very late and ended prematurely. Many would say his action should’ve never let him play Tests or ODIs for Pakistan, but as it stands his numbers are legal and the matches he won for Pakistan stay too, even though his career did come to a screeching halt in some sort of ignominy.

The Pakistani spinner’s suspect action, always under question, helped him do unique things with the ball, and batsman, even the best of them, struggled to pick it up. In 35 Tests, Ajmal picked up a whopping 178 wickets at 28.10 with 10 five-wicket hauls. In 113 ODIs, Ajmal picked up 184 wickets. The ICC called him for his action once before Pakistan’s 2009 T20 World Cup victory before he was cleared.

A few productive years later, he was called again and he wasn’t quite the same after that. Ajmal made his debut at 32 and played his last Test at 37.