One of India's best pacers: A statistical wrap of Zaheer Khan's international career

Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan announced his retirement from international cricket on Thursday, capping a 14-year long career punctuated by considerable success as well as crippling injuries. The 37-year-old ended his international career due to a series of injuries, the latest being a shoulder complaint. He made his India debut in 2000 and played his last game for the country in 2014 against New Zealand at Wellington. [caption id=“attachment_2471208” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Zaheer Khan. Getty[/caption] Zaheer is leaving the stage after playing in 92 Tests and 200 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), picking up 311 and 282 wickets, respectively. He also claimed 17 wickets in as many T20 internationals. He ends up as fourth-highest wicket-taker for India in ODIs and Tests and was the second-most successful pacer for India in Tests after Kapil Dev. Here’s a statistical wrap of Zaheer Khan’s career.  Zaheer’s ability to swing the ball both ways, generate seam movement and accuracy fetched him a good amount of bowleds and LBWs   Graeme Smith was Zaheer’s bunny, the pacer removed him 14 times in 27 matches. In fact, Zaheer’s 14 dismissals of Smith (across all formats) is actually the joint second best performance by an Indian bowler.   Zaheer loved bowling to the left-handers. 43 percent of his wickets were left-handers. This is the highest percentage of left-handed victims among all pacers who have taken 200 or more wickets. Among all bowlers (including spinners), only one bowler – England’s Graeme Swann – has the higher left-hand victim percentage.   Zaheer’s 610 wickets in all international cricket (Tests, ODIs & T20Is combined) are the fourth most by an Indian bowler after Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.  Among Indian pacers only Kapil Dev took more wickets than Zaheer’s 311 in Test cricket.  Only two left-arm pacers – Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas – had more wickets than Zaheer Khan in Test cricket.  Overall, in international cricket too, only Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas took more wickets than Zaheer Khan (among left-arm pacers)  When it comes to the contribution in India’s overseas Test wins, Zaheer is second to none.  Zaheer always loved the big stage. His tally of 44 wickets is the joint-most by any Indian bowler in World Cup matches, along with Javagal Srinath. Overall he is joint fifth in the list of most successful bowlers in World Cup cricket.  With inputs from IANS