First comes Imran. Imran essentially passed every major milestone expected of a true all-time great fast bowler and his record is not far from Marshall, McGrath and Hadlee as complete. His record against the best team of his era, WI, was better than any of his peers. He averaged overall less than 25 against everyone except NZ. His record against the strong Indian batting lineups on pure roads is very impressive. He improved as his career moved along, and was as successful when he came back at reduced pace in 1986 as he was at his pace peak, showing a new mastery of the leg cutter. His bowling peak was actually rated the best of all post-war bowlers. As a bowler, he was calculating and you can sense he pushed himself to respond to bigger challenges. Unlike Waqar and Wasim, whose best performances were mostly in tandem, he has quite a few performances where he simply single handedly sliced through a world class batting lineup. I don't see much in Wasim and Waqar records to compare to his 12-fer against a strong Aussie lineup in 76, he 7-fer against a strong England lineup in 82, his demolition job of India in 82-83, and his 7-fer in the WI in 88. Those are mighty performances.
Wasim comes next. Obviously, the most talented of the bunch, perhaps of any bunch. But the more you look at his record the more you get a sense that he underachieved. Modest records against England, India, Australia and SA. He was supremely skilled with the ball but himself admits that he was not the best planner and often didnt know what ball he was going to bowl next. During the early 90s, this still meant plenty of wickets, but as the years moved on, he remained crafty, great to watch and hard to play but lost the extra gear in pace, the swerve in his reverse and that penetration that he found in his peak years. Batsmen were content to play him out out of respect and lost their wickets at the other end. He lacks standout performances IMO the way Imran had when he could demolish high quality opposition on his lonesome (just one 7-fer against NZ, for example). You get the sense with Wasim that he could have got 100 more wickets if he applied himself better. Still, my favorite.
Waqar comes last. Devestating peak but short in comparison to his whole career. Without his pace after his back injury in 1994, he never could command the same respect the way Imran and Wasim did once they lost their pace. He was the most inconsistent of the lot and while Imran and Wasim were rarely collared, Waqar was smashed on many occasions as per his blasting out bowling style. Probably the best at reverse swing but really only mastered the new ball very late in his career, so I wouldnt call him the complete bowler like the previous two.At a certain stage in the late 90s, his bowling was so poor he found it hard to get in the team. Also benefited like Wasim from playing against minnows and his record against India, Australia, England, and SA is modest.
