I still remember the competition between Sachin Tendulkar and Shoaib Akhtar till to date. In my opinion Shaheen Afridi is a great bowler in modern day cricket for Pakistan and as a batter it will be Babar Azam. They still need another good bowler and couple of good all rounder to balance the team. Abdullah Shafique's performance in the last test match looks quite promising. Now he needs to repeat it in the next test match to make a name for himself.
Yeah.. I remember Pakistani team touring India sometime in late 1990s. It was Shoiab Akhtar's first tour of India and he wrecked havoc. Indian batsmen (including Ganguly, Tendulkar, Sachin and Laxman) were complaining that he was so fast that they can't even see the ball. And India didn't had bowlers with that much pace. Javagal Srinath used to hit 90mph once in a while, but the other bowlers such as Debashish Mohanty, Ajit Agarkar and Ashish Nehra used to bowl in low 70s, or early 80s. LOL.. back then test cricket was entertaining.
Yes, Shoaib Akhtar was the fastest and perhaps the one who set this trend but then Brett Lee, Mitchell Starc, and Shaun Tait also were considered the fastest and more consistent fast bowlers as compared to Shoaib Akhtar.
However, among all the bowlers, the Shoaib Akhtar action was the most furious and devastating. No one could be compared to him in this department.