#4 Shabbir Ahmed
Shabbir Ahmed was tall and had an unconventional bowling action. This resulted in generating extra bounce from the surface. He was also pretty good at reverse swinging the ball later on in the innings.
With all the aforementioned components, the right arm fast bowler rose to prominence pretty quickly and became the joint-quickest Pakistani bowler to 50 Test wickets. His potential was clearly visible in his debut game where he picked up eight wickets (three in first innings and five in second) on a lifeless Karachi pitch against Bangladesh.
In the same year, he rattled the South African batsman at Faisalabad, picking up six wickets in the game and in December 2003, he ran through the Kiwi batting line up at Hamilton, accounting for five batsmen. In ODI cricket too, he was impressive and his sterling control over swing ensured he finished his overs without conceding too many runs.
Just when Shabbir looked at the peak of his game, he was reported for suspect bowling action which eventually brought his down fall. He was awarded a one-year ban in 2005 from which he never recovered. He remained a strong force in List A and first-class cricket till 2013 but the availability of plenty of pace bowlers in the nation meant that Shabbir didn’t get any chance to make a come back.
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