Ramiz Raja picks his five best Pakistan players of all time

Dubai - Raja reveals why Miandad is one of Pakistan's greatest batsmen in history.

It's always a tough task to pick the five all-time best players from a country with a rich cricket history. And if that country happens to be Pakistan which has the knack of producing lavishly gifted cricketers, then your job becomes all the more difficult.
But Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan captain and celebrated commentator, took up the challenge on his YouTube channel - RamizSpeaks -- to engage the fans at a time when they don't have live cricket to look forward to in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I will pick the five players, who in my opinion, are the five best players that Pakistan have produced," Raza told his followers on his YouTube channel.
So who are these five players?
Well, Raja's first pick is none other than the iconic Imran Khan, Pakistan's only World Cup-winning captain.
Then Raja's second pick is the incomparable Javed Miandad, the greatest batsman Pakistan has ever produced.
And the third on Raja's list was a spinner who Shane Warne grew up idolising.
Yes, that's Abdul Qadir, the man who made 80s kids fall in love with leg-spin.
The versatile Wasim Akram and the classy Inzamam-ul-Haq completed Raja's list.
"Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul Haq. These are the five players that changed the DNA of Pakistan cricket. And it's a matter of great pride for me that I played my cricket with all of these five players," Raja said.
Ramiz then went on to give rare insight into the greatness of Miandad and Qaidr.
"Pakistan have produced so many great batsmen. But there was nobody like Javed Miandad. He was a unique player whose Test average never fell below 50. He maintained his 50 plus average from his first Test until his last Test in his 124-match Test career," Raja said.
Raja also revealed what made Miandad Pakistan's greatest all conditions batsman.
"He played with an attitude and had the temperament of a fast bowler. He understood the game and the match situations so well," Raja said.
"He would stand like a wall in foreign conditions to protect the weak Pakistan batting line-up. He knew when and where to get runs off spinners and he was equally good at facing bouncers from fast bowlers."
If Miandad's mastery over all types of bowlers and conditions made him one of the greatest batsmen to have played the game, then Abdul Qadir cemented his place in the pantheon of legends for making leg-spin a weapon in one-day cricket.
"Before Abdul Qadir came along, spinners, especially leg-spinners, had no place in one-day cricket because they were expensive. So the credit goes to Qadir for making leg-spin a strong weapon in one-day cricket. He could do that because he was so accurate," Raja said.
"Also, our captain Imran deserves credit for introducing leg-spin in one-day cricket through Qadir who was never afraid of bowling an attacking line even against the great Viv Richards!"
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com