ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

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These ratings equal maximam points these great players ever achieved by displaying sheer brilliance and sustaining excellent form over a prolonged period during their peak years

900 points is the magical number in both batting and bowling

  • Imran Khan (922) & Waqar Younis (909) 3rd and 10th best-ever bowlers in test cricket
  • Zaheer Abbas (931) & Javed Miandad (910) 2nd and 6th best-ever batsmen in ODIs. The classy Zaheer is second only to the incomparable Viv Richards (935)

Mohammad Yousuf (933 points) is 12th best-ever in tests. He achieved that during his record-breaking 1788 runs with 9 test hundreds in 2006
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284248.html

Wasim Akram is surprisingly at 59 (830 points) and 15 (850 points) on test and ODI bowlers’ list respectively…bahut nainsaafi hai yeh

Tendulkar surprisingly has not topped 900 points in either tests or ODIs ever. His best is 898 in test cricket and 887 in ODI. Miandad’s best is 885 in test cricket. Gavaskar’s best in tests is 916 points.

Test Bowlers - Best ever ratings

**Test Batsmen - Best ever ratings
**All Time ICC Test Batting Rankings : Best Ever Test Batsmen

ICC Best-Ever ODI Bowlers
http://www.iccreliancerankings.com/alltime/odi/bowling/

ICC Best-Ever ODI Batsmen
http://www.iccreliancerankings.com/alltime/odi/batting/

Best-Ever Test Ratings (Bowlers)
ID Rat. Name Nat. Career Best Rating
1 932 S.F. Barnes ENG 932 v South Africa, 14/02/1914
2 931 G.A. Lohmann ENG 931 v South Africa, 02/03/1896
3 922 Imran Khan PAK 922 v India, 30/01/1983
4 920 M. Muralidaran SL 920 v Bangladesh, 11/07/2007
5 914 G.D. McGrath AUS 914 v England, 23/08/2001
6 912 G.A.R. Lock ENG 912 v New Zealand, 24/07/1958
6 912 C.E.L. Ambrose WI 912 v England, 25/03/1994
8 911 I.T. Botham ENG 911 v India, 15/02/1980
9 910 M.D. Marshall WI 910 v England, 30/06/1988
10 909 S.M. Pollock SA 909 v England, 25/11/1999
10 909 Waqar Younis PAK 909 v Zimbabwe, 09/12/1993
10 909 R.J. Hadlee NZ 909 v Australia, 30/11/1985

Best-Ever ODI Ratings (Batsmen)
ID Rat. Name Nat. Career Best Rating
1 935 I.V.A. Richards WI 935 v Pakistan, 02/12/1985
2 931 Zaheer Abbas PAK 931 v New Zealand, 20/06/1983
3 921 G.S. Chappell AUS 921 v New Zealand, 03/02/1981
4 919 D.I. Gower ENG 919 v New Zealand, 15/06/1983
5 918 D.M. Jones AUS 918 v West Indies, 09/03/1991
6 910 Javed Miandad PAK 910 v Sri Lanka, 08/10/1987
7 908 B.C. Lara WI 908 v Pakistan, 26/03/1993
8 900 D.L. Haynes WI 900 v New Zealand, 23/04/1985
8 900 G. Kirsten SA 900 v Australia, 19/10/1996
10 897 A.J. Lamb ENG 897 v Pakistan, 02/03/1985

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Imran Khan:

Imran at No 3 in Best-Ever Test List, does not surprise me at all. He achieved his best rating (922) during the 1982-3 home series against India which Pakistan won 3-0. He took 40 wickets in 6 tests at an astonishing average of 13.95, a great feat given the batting-friendly nature of the pitches. After the series Sunil Gavasker called Imran Khan ‘unplayable’

http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?id=248;type=series

His eleven wickets at Faisalabad were truly amazing. Because Faislabad wicket at the time was (and even now is) the most dead wicket anywhere in the world. Dennis Lillee in 1980 called the wicket ‘a bowler’s graveyard’ and vowed never to return to Pakistan!!! In the Faislabad Test against India, Pakistan scored 652 yet Imran took 11 wickets against one of the best batting line-ups in the world

1982-3 Test series
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/60507.html

Wasim Bari
I remember it as a really fast and aggressive spell. Imran’s inswingers were quite unique and different from the kind that Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis bowled. In comparison to Imran, they didn’t reverse swing the ball nearly as much. His was huge, booming swing, and totally typical of him.

Keeping to him was a real challenge in that spell because he was swinging it so much. I used to stand really wide of off stump to pick his line and then adjust accordingly. It’s difficult to pick out one wicket that was special from that spell because they were all spectacular.** Sunil Gavaskar was bowled to one that dipped in really sharply. Vishy [Gundappa Viswanath] as well; and Mohinder Amarnath was lbw. All three were exceptional players of pace bowling, which tells you how good that spell was. **

The Maharajah of Baroda, who was the Indian team manager, had said to me earlier on the tour: “We have a batting line-up, till No. 11, and nothing can go through them.” I said, “You haven’t seen Imran yet because even if you have 15, he’ll go through you.”

Arun Lal
The wicket was a placid one, good for making runs. But Imran bowled this phenomenal spell and erased our top order. There was a bit of cross-breeze, and once the shine was off the ball, Imran got into business. We were completely caught unawares by the huge amount of swing that he managed to get - both ways. We asked ourselves how he could do that when our own bowlers, including Kapil Dev, who was known for swinging it, couldn’t.
Imran himself was more popular for bowling fast, digging it in short and hitting the ribcage - more of a tearaway than a swinger. But in this game he got it to swing both ways with the new ball, and then got reverse swing too, which we didn’t even know existed.
The one wicket that summarises his efforts was that of Viswanath, who shouldered arms to an off-side delivery; the ball suddenly swung back in, a couple of feet almost, and disturbed his off stump. He didn’t know what was happening; no one did. It was like a secret weapon that was unleashed, and we couldn’t defend ourselves.

The swing thing - Imran runs through | Cricket News | Global | Cricinfo.com - Wasim Bari and Arun Lal’s take on Imran Khan

Javed Miandad:
Miandad achieved his highest-ever rating (910) in ODIs in 1987 when he scored 9 consecutive one-day half-centuries (all away - India and England) - still a world record.

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re: ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

Great to see all this... about Wasim.. I dont see anything wrong with it...... Wasim was not as great a bowler in his initial years, as he became after wards, specially after the inclusion of Waqar Younis in Pakistan side.. I remember during the early 90's that Waqar even though he started his career after like 4-5 years of Wasim, still managed to come closer to Wasims statics by few numbers of wickets. especially his 5 wickets and 10 wickets hauls were more than Wasim..

had Wasim not done the dirty tricks of excluding Waqar for a very long time, then I am pretty sure Waqar would have surpassed him by a long margin.... any how. this is about ICC rankings.. so MASHA ALLAH,, a fair number of Pakistanis are occupying the list.. which is good to see..

Your Baloch is actually my Pashtun
Your Baloch is actually my Pashtun
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Imran also captained Pakistan in that series: in addition to reaching the highest bowling ranking since 1914, he scored 247 runs @ 61.75 with a highest of 117. This was also the series in which Imran got injured and could not bowl again until 1984-85.

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re: ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

As usual Pakistani players ahead of the "over hyped" Indian players. LOL!

MashaAllah! May it remain like that (inshaAllah) for the next coming centuries as well. :D

Imagine, if Pakistan was not separated from India in 1947, so much talent would have been lost. Don't tell me BCCI would have selected all the above mentioned players in the Indian team.

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^ You probably have a point

And talking of Imran's action so smooth, so fluid, so easy on the eye, so perfect compared with some of the bowlers' ugly actions these days in particular Malinga

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And considering that the two above Imran are baba-e-Adam k zamane k (pre-1915), Imran's achievement as a bowler is the greatest in modern test history......though Murali came agonisingly close to overtaking him

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Also remember that if many Pakistani (Imran Khan 22.81, Waqar Younis 23.56 & Wasim Akram 23.62) and Australian (Dennis Lillee 23.92 etc.), English, West Indian (the fearsome quartet), South African (Donald & Pollock) and New Zealand (Hadlee 22.29) finished their careers with a bowling average of less than 25, the achievements of Pak bowlers are greater because they played 50% of their cricket on the unhelpful, dusty and slow sub-continental pitches. So I w'd adjust their respective averages (by atleast 2-3 points) to 19 or 20 to account for that very important fact. Many statisticians and experts conveniently ignore that...

As for other sub-continental bowlers, none of them ever achieved a high enough career bowling average - Vaas (29.58) and Kapil (29.64) being the closest.

Even Botham who played the vast majority of his tests on the helpful English and Australian pitches finished with a career bowling average in the high 20s (28.40)

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And to think that Imran was 30 when he achieved all that and then went on to play for nearly another decade despite his shin injury just shows how supremely fit and gifted he was.

By contrast - I know that there is more cricket played these days - Flintoff's (31) body has given up already

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GA, very valid indeed.. Paksitani bowlers have done much better than many of their counterparts.... About Murali, his records shine more and more in home series only... Pakistan and India kept quite about his bowling action, cause none of the countries wanted to harm the Asian harmony during that time... Else, I have serious reservations over his actions.. I can prove that Murali at times does bowl illegitimate deliveries.

About Botham,, do you really think he was a bowler :)...

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Re: ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

For me Wasim Akram at 59 means that this rating has no credibility in my eyes. wasim was the best fast bowler we produced, ahead of both Waqar and Imran. At his peak he was the most feared bowler in the world.

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Re: ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

^Agreed. Even Shane Warne placed him ahead of all the bowlers in his list of greatest players he had played with. The only bowler I remember Shane put ahead of Wasim bhai was Ambrose.

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Ofcourse there is something wrong with Wasim is rated behind Steve Harmisson and Ntini.Waqar can overtake Wasim and all.Look at Mcgrath he took over Wasim,still many greats including Lara says Wasim as the best.And Ambrose rate him as the best and the bowler he admires most .Also Waqar had a poor avearge against Australia and India.If u go strictly by statistics.

Again Wasim playing dirty politics.After an average of 72(bowling average) after India series 99,what he was supposed to do.Moreover what excuse do u have when Glamorgan county dropped Waqar during the same period.

Imran had a poor start to his career as well.An average around 30.Then he picked up.This rating is based on the ''peak '' at certain period.Not about the overall record.

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Even Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne are not in the top 10 test bowlers list.

Agreed Wasim should have been a bit higher on the list but I disagree that Wasim was better than Imran. Wasim certainly had more variety in his armoury than Waqar but in his prime (from late 80s to early 90s) Waqar was more destructive, more lethal than Wasim…Waqar’s SR in tests was 34 or 35 and his bowling average 18 or 19. And I believe that Imran was better than both Wasim and Waqar

And remember these ratings don’t take into account your overall record but your best performances over a certain period…plus they look at the quality of opposition, quality of pitches, whether home or away games/series and your performance relative to other batters and bowlers in those games/series.

So brilliant displays with the ball in 2-3 successive series might earn you 900 points but 50 odd wickets in a calendar year might not not improve your rating as much. Likewise tons of runs/hundreds in successive games/series will improve your rating more than less spectacular displays spread out over a longer period

Examples:

  • Viv Richards scoring 891 in only 4 tests against England in 1976
  • Imran Khan taking 40 wickets in 6 tests against India on dead pitches. I don’t remember Wasim ever taking even 25 wickets in a test series
  • Waqar taking 29 wickets in 3 tests against NZ in 1989
  • Miandad scoring 9 successive half-centuries in ODIs (all away) in 1987

However extraspecial displays in a calendar year would.

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Thats why these rankings are such a hoax.Yousuf is no way near to Javed Miandad,Inzamam,Saeed Anwar .They are all faced some finest bowling and did so well. Especially Anwar he was so good against top quality pace bowling .Inzamam,had he been there Pakistan wouldn't have collapsed like a deck of cards against a mediocre Sl attack. And Javed Miandad,such a loud mouth,but what a gutsy player.Had he been in this era would have averaged 70.Now look at Yousuf talented he may be,but now way the best test batsman.

Imran is the best not because of the ratings ,because he was the best against the best sides of his time,best batting line ups of his time.He had a long peak as well.He deserved to be there .And Wasim was the backbone of the Pkaistan team,thats why people hate him for not playing in the 96QF.Yes Waqar was there,but the lack of presence of Wasim made Indians feel better .I am an Indian and I can attest that.He was more than ratings,wickets and averages.He can bring wickets from the other end.No exaggeration,it is a fact.He was always mean,accurate,put tremendous pressure on the batsmen with his immaculate varieties.Without him Pakistan team always looked light weight.He brought confidence. I saw his multiple unplayable spells beating the batsmen again and again not fetching any wickets,wheras other expensive bowlers who get thrashed all over the park get wickets. One has to watch the game to undersatnd his greatness.

No wonder those top batsmen,peers rate him as the best.

Timepass - October 2013
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Also Ehsan bhai remember, Imran (88 tests) has most 10-wicket match hauls (6) in tests among all Pakistani bowlers. He achieved that in his 71st test in the Caribbean in 1988. 3 of his 6 hauls were in away series - Sydney 1977, Headingley (Leeds) 1987 and Bourda (Caribbean) 1988

Both Waqar (87 tests) & Wasim (104 tests) took 10 wickets 5 times each, though Waqar played 17 tests fewer than Wasim.

I followed the careers of Imran, Wasim and Waqar very closely. By the end of the three-test series in the Caribbean in 1988, Imran had 334 wickets in 73 tests at a bowling average of 20. Wasim never achieved such a high average at any stage in his career. And Waqar's bowling average was an astonishing 18 or 19 in his first 35 tests or so. So he exploded from the outset whereas both Imran and Wasim were late bloomers. And Waqar was never the same bowler again after 1996 once his pace dropped following a stress fracture of back.

In his last 15 tests, Imran played in the side mainly as a captain and batsman - remember he averaged 50+ with the bat in 48 tests as captain as well - bowling just a few overs in each test. By then he was in his late 30s, his pace had declined and Imran's bowling stats suffered if anything. So to still end hs career with a bowling average of 22.81 is great credit to Imran Khan.

Timepass - October 2013
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Can u bring Wasim's statistics from 1990-1996?

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Only joking par aapka username dekh kar aankhon mein ansu aa jaatey hain…

Anyways as per your farmaish

Wasim Akram 1990-1996: 217 wickets in 43 tests @ 20.29
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/43547.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1996;spanmin1=01+Jan+1990;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

**Waqar Younis 1989-1994: **190 wickets in 33 tests @ 19.15
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/43543.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1994;spanmin1=01+Jan+1989;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

Waqar Younis 1989-1996: 227 wickets in 44 tests @ 21.33
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/43543.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1996;spanmin1=01+Jan+1989;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

Timepass - October 2013
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Re: ICC Best-Ever Ratings: IMRAN KHAN 3rd best-ever in 132 years of Test Cricket

There are stats and there are stats and there are lies. I respect your opinion and I have followed all three from the day they bowled their first bowl to the day they retired and I rate them as follows:

Wasim
Waqar
Imran

The above is purely on their bowling abilities and both Akram and Waqar benefited by having Imran to guide them.

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I respect your opinion

Anyways since we are discussing the peak years of all three bowlers here’s Imran Khan’s stats:

from 1977-1983: 212 wickets in 42 tests @ 21.06
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/40560.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1983;spanmin1=01+Jan+1977;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

from 1980-1989: 256 wickets in 54 tests @ 19.12
http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/40560.html?class=1;spanmax1=31+Dec+1989;spanmin1=01+Jan+1980;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling

So I guess not much to choose between the peak years of Imran, Waqar and Wasim

But Imran’s peak was much longer (1977-1989)

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Man if u could change that into anu_75.Anu is a part of may name,so i put it as Anu’s id. Oh yes ,it was weird,never thought of it.