Mohammad Amir

Mohammad Amir, the left-armer once hailed as Pakistan's next great fast-bowling hope and who nearly delivered on that promise, will always be linked to his role in the spot-fixing scandal of 2010 - the deliberate no-balls at Lord's that led to a five-year ban and time in prison.

Amir's rise was meteoric. Picked by Wasim Akram in a pace camp in 2007, he burst onto the scene in 2009, taking 55 wickets at 15 apiece in his debut first-class season and starring in Pakistan's T20 World Cup win. He took six wickets on Test debut in Sri Lanka, and by the 2010 England tour, when he was not yet 19, had become the youngest bowler to reach 50 Test wickets, his whippy pace and movement making him the hottest prospect in cricket. The ban put paid to all that.

Amir was cleared to return in 2015 and was back in Pakistan colours by early 2016, but he struggled for consistency in Tests. He did produce one of Pakistan's greatest modern white-ball spells in the 2017 Champions Trophy final, when his 3 for 16 broke India's top order and set up a famous win. And he shone with 17 wickets - including 5 for 30 in a loss against Australia, where he seemed to be on a different planet to his bowling team-mates - at the ODI World Cup two years later.

Amir ended up playing 22 Tests after his return, taking 68 wickets at a little over 31 runs apiece. He retired from that format in 2019, and a year on, from international cricket altogether, citing mental strain and disillusionment with management. He remained a regular in T20 leagues worldwide, though, particularly the PSL, BPL and CPL, where his new-ball skills kept him in demand.

In 2024 he reversed his retirement and returned to Pakistan's T20I squad, playing a handful of bilateral series and the World Cup, where he took seven wickets in four games. The following year, playing for Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL, he became only the second Pakistani bowler to claim 400 wickets in T20 cricket, underlining his longevity in the shortest format.