Zaheer Khan

During the most part of his international career, Zaheer Khan was India’s go to option to lead the pace contingent indifferent of the playing conditions. Zaheer is India’s second-most successful bowler in Tests, with 311 wickets from 92 matches, lagging behind Kapil Dev only. Making his India debut in 2000, a year after his First-Class debut, Zaheer represented India in 200 ODIs and 17 T20Is as well, bagging 282 and 17 wickets respectively. Famous for his knuckle ball, Zaheer was able to swing the ball and was a consistent wicket-taker. His career was interrupted by several injuries. The one which affected him the most came during the 2004 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.

Zaheer played three World Cups in his career, two of them were fruitful for him. In 2003, Zaheer picked up 18 wickets, in 2007, he got 5 wickets and finally, during India’s victorious 2011 journey, Zaheer picked up 21 wickets to take his World Cup tally to 44 – fifth-most in the world. After his absence from international cricket, he came back as Delhi Daredevils’ captain in IPL and put up impressive performance only to announce his retirement from all formats post IPL 2017.