Zaheer Khan, the left-arm swing bowler who tormented the world's best left-handers
Zaheer Khan dismissed Matthew Hayden, Kumar Sangakkara, Graeme Smith and Sanath Jayasuriya more than 10 times each. The left-arm paceman from Shrirampur in Maharashtra mastered reverse swing with the old ball and led India's attack with 21 wickets in 9 games at the 2011 World Cup.
Born on 8 October 1978 in Shrirampur, in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, he moved to Mumbai in 1996 to play club cricket for the National Cricket Club. His captain there recalled him reverse swinging a ball that had already been bowled for 50 overs, sending down ten maidens to win a Comrade Shield match, and a 7 for 74 in January 1997 got him sent to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, whose coach T. A. Sekhar pushed him toward Baroda.
In the 2000–01 Ranji Trophy final against Railways he took 8 for 145, including 5 for 16 in the second innings, to give Baroda its first title in 43 years. He played for India from 2000 to 2014, sharing the 2002 Champions Trophy and spearheading the 2011 World Cup win. In Tests he is tied with Ishant Sharma as India's second most successful pace bowler, behind Kapil Dev.
At Worcestershire in 2005 he took ten wickets on debut against Somerset, the first player to manage that for the county in over 100 years, and then claimed the first nine Essex wickets to fall; only a dropped catch off Darren Gough stopped him taking all ten. His 237 left-handed victims rank third, behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shaun Pollock.
Recurring injuries repeatedly interrupted his career, which led him to set up ProSport Fitness & Services, a rehabilitation and training centre, with Adrian Le Roux and Andrew Leipus. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2008, he received the Arjuna Award in 2011 and the Padma Shri in 2020, retired from international cricket in October 2015, and mentored Lucknow Super Giants in 2025.
Source: Zaheer Khan
