Iqbal Qasim

The most successful left-arm spinner Pakistan produced, Iqbal Qasim was accurate and miserly, with an angular approach to the crease and a low trajectory that pushed the ball through at the batter. Those virtues fetched him 171 wickets in his 50 Tests at an economy of just over 2 per over.

Qasim started in Australia in 1976 and took seven wickets in his second Test, in Melbourne - though he went for plenty and Pakistan sank to a massive defeat. A forgettable tour of the West Indies followed and two series in a row against England where he didn't exactly shine. He took ten in Bombay in 1979, though in a defeat again, before hitting his stride in a big way in 1980 under the captaincy of Javed Miandad. He took 39 wickets that year, including healthy hauls against Australia and West Indies when they came calling.

In 1982 he took 23 wickets in five Tests - 14 of those in the first two matches of the series against Test newbies Sri Lanka, who were suitably overpowered.

One of Qasim;s most storied contributions came in a thriller in Bangalore in the last Test of the 1987 series, where on a fourth-innings minefield he and Tauseef Ahmed bowled nearly 83 overs between them, held at bay by a Sunil Gavaskar masterclass, before Qasim finally broke through to seize a series-winning victory for Pakistan with India just 17 runs short of their target.

Late the next year, he took nine in a crushing Karachi win over Australia. Two Tests later, he was done, finishing against the opponents he had started against. Ironically for a flat and accurate bowler, Qasim was nearly twice as expensive in ODIs as in Tests, was in and out of the limited-overs side, and missed the three World Cups that fell during his career.