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.
I still remember that first time Sachin Tendulkar was bowled by Shoaib Akhtar. I believe it was the first time Sachin Tendulkar was facing Shoaib Akhtar. Honestly, when Sachin Tendulkar walked out in the field it felt like he did not have any respect for the pace of Shoaib Akhtar. But the ball was swinging and Shoaib Akhtar got a really sharp
yorker in on the first ball and got the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar.
At that time the lineup of Shoaib Akhtar, Imran Khan, and Wasim Akram was the most effective bowling lineup cricket has ever produced, in my opinion. And Pakistan was heavily dependent on these players. In my memories, Pakistan always liked to bowl second because they could defend almost anything.