At his peak IMRAN KHAN was better than both Wasim and Waqar IMHO. Imran (late 70s to mid 80s) was genuinely fast and pacier than Wasim Akram if not Shoaib Akhter and Waqar Younis. His in-dipper was deadly and he could outswing the ball as well. Remember Imran took 40 wickets at a quite astonishing bowling average of 13.95 in 6 tests (most of which did not have more than one completed innings!) on the batsman-friendly dead home pitches against India in 1983. No one-else apart from Kapil Dev took more than 20 wickets in that series! And that was quite a formidable Indian batting line-up; the ever-dependable Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri and Sandeep Patil. Look at the test batting averages in that series and you really begin to appreciate how well he bowled then. Imran suffered a stress fracture (ankle) soon after the India series forcing him to miss 2.5 of his peak test years. After Zia (his best gift to Pakistan!!) persuaded him to come out of retirement in 1988, Imran then aged 35+ took 23 wickets in three tests in the Caribbean against a West Indies side boasting the likes of Greenidge, Haynes, the mighty Viv Richards and Richie Richardson. Imran had an aura and presence which the two W’s did not quite have even in their prime.
Pakistan v India 1982-3](http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/IND_IN_PAK/IND_IN_PAK_1982-83_TEST_AVS.html)
West Indies v Pakistan 1988](http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1987-88/PAK_IN_WI/PAK_IN_WI_MAR-MAY1988_TEST_AVS.html)