Credit: ICC
Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has revealed that ex-New Zealand middle-order batter Martin Crowe was the toughest ever player he faced. Akram served Pakistan from 1984 to 2003 and during his 19-year career, he delivered stuff competition to batters. There was a time when Akram used to make batters dance to his tunes with his impeccable swing bowling. Iconic names such as Steve Waugh, Sourav Ganguly, Brian Lara, and Ricky Ponting used to struggle against the legendary speedster. In 2003, Akram retired from international cricket with more than 900 wickets in 460 games.
Recently, Wasim Akram appeared on Stick to Cricket podcast where he was asked who was the toughest batter he faced during his career. Responding to the query, Akram took Crowe’s name. “Look, this is a very difficult question to answer but if you had to pick one person who scored the most runs against us and that too at a time when nobody knew about reverse swing, I would name Martin Crowe from New Zealand. He scored a lot of runs against us,” said Akram.
Martin Crowe’s record against Pakistan
Martin Crowe delivered his services to the New Zealand cricket team from 1982 to 1995 and during those 13 years, he played 11 Tests against Pakistan and amassed 973 runs with two hundreds and six fifties in 20 innings. In One-Day Internationals (ODI), he notched up 992 runs against the Men In Green in 26 contests.
Crowe breathed his last on March 3, 2016 after losing his battle against follicular lymphoma. A year before his death, the New Zealander was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame while in 2024, he was given a place in the NZC Hall of Fame as one of the First XI.
