Fear factor the key for Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara as he lists the bowlers he least enjoyed facing
Kumar Sangakkara conquered the best bowling attacks in the world during his 15-year international career and now the Sri Lanka legend has named the best bowler he ever faced. Speaking on the Howie Games podcast, Sangakkara revealed Pakistan great Wasim Akram as the most difficult bowler he encountered during his 594-game international career.
"I think I've faced Wasim Akram only a few times (but he was) immensely difficult, Sangakkara said. "It's strange you know, when you pick your bowlers or the people think, if you take Akram on the Test wicket tally, he's nowhere near the top. "He's 12th, but you ask any batsman around the world and his name always comes up. "He was an absolute genius."
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While Wasims name was the first to spring into Sangakkaras mind when the question was posed, he also rates Australia spin king Shane Warne, Indias Zaheer Khan and England spinner Graeme Swann among the toughest hed faced. It was the fear factor they posed which set them apart, he noted, saying he never felt the same trepidation before facing Englands most prolific Test wicket taker James Anderson. "I've never faced Murali, luckily, in international cricket, or Chaminda Vaas. "Shane Warne, incredibly difficult. "I've had problems with Zaheer Khan. Graeme Swann. These bowlers have been very, very difficult. "Even though Jimmy Anderson has probably got me out many times more, I would rate the others as people I really worried about."
Sangakkara and Wasim only met in nine ODIs throughout their international careers, with the lethal left-armer getting the better of Sangakkara on three occasions all in 2002 dismissing him for 10, 5 and 0. While Sangakkaras career average in ODIs was 41.98, he averaged just 11.75 in matches where Wasim was playing. Warne dismissed the Sri Lanka great four times in Tests, while Zaheer had Sangakkaras measure on 11 occasions, five of those in ODIs and six in Tests. England spinner Swann managed to take Sangakkaras wicket six times in international cricket, the same number of time as paceman Anderson. Sangakkara went on to name the best batsman he had ever watched, adding he felt compatriot Aravinda de Silva had been unlucky not to have had a more prolific career.
"Sir Vivian Richards when I was growing up, then along comes Brian Lara. "Watching Brian bat was an absolute privilege. "Aravinda de Silva, he was incredible to watch. If he had been born a few years later he might not have had a World Cup but we would have had a guy who would have been in the top five all-time batsmen list, easy. "Because I think after 1996 the attitude of Sri Lanka changed, we were pushing for more hundreds, more wins. "He was dropped for two years . and I remember he came up to me one day after he had just got back in the side, and we were talking about something and he said to me, 'if I had played the last two years I would have scored another 20 hundreds with one eye closed'. "And I believe him, because I know what he can do. He was not joking. He was deadly serious. To me he's an extremely special player."
http://www.cricket.com.au/news/kuma...asim-akram-shane-warne-zaheer-khan/2017-02-02
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