The former Pakistan bowler Saeed Ajmal was recognized as one of the top bowlers globally during his relatively brief international career. He took 447 wickets in 212 matches across different formats. He was an expert in deceiving the batters with his variations. Once he also claimed the number one spot in the T20 and ODI ranking.
Even after these wickets, Ajmal’s international career got over after a ban was imposed on him by the ICC in 2014. Now, the spinner has talked about his international career and said that he would have 1000 wickets if he had played for India.
While talking to Nadil Ali Podcast, Ajmal said, “I would have taken 1,000 wickets by now. To be honest, if I played for India, I would have 1,000 wickets. I was a bowler who took 100 wickets every year. Almost every year in my international career, I took 100 wickets.”
Ajmal was banned due to his illegal bowling action as his elbow bent more than 15 degrees while delivering the ball. After the warnings by the ICC, he failed to adapt to the changes and later on ended his international career playing his last international match against Bangladesh.
“They should have stopped me in 2009 only. But they allowed me to play. After I got 448 wickets, they realized there needs to be a way to stop him, and so they did what they did. I was the world’s number one bowler when I was banned from bowling,” he added.
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Ajmal has also said that the action of many Indian bowlers also falls in the category of suspect but they are not banned as BCCI has the domination in the world cricket fraternity and they have a strong influence in ICC.
