Johnson will leave behind Akram: Younis
By ANIWednesday, January 13, 2010
HOBART - Former Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Younis has predicted that Aussie bower Mitchell Johnson will eventually leave Wasim Akram behind to become Test cricket’s most successful left-arm fast bowler.
Waqar said he had “no doubt” that the Australian strike weapon would exceed Wasim’s 414 wickets before his Test career was over.
Johnson, 28, has taken 142 Test wickets from 31 Tests at 51.88 - superior to Wasim’s career strike rate of 54.65.
“Nobody is better than Wasim but I have no doubt that if Johnson stays fit he will take more than 400 Test wickets, maybe a fair bit more. Johnson’s record is superb and I think it shows he will have a great Test career,” The Dawn quoted Younis, as saying.
“He is probably at his best right now but there is no reason he can’t play for another five or six years, which will means he will take a lot of Test wickets,” he added.
Johnson needs only 45 wickets to beat Alan Davison as Australia’s most successful left-arm quick.
He will then have only Wasim and fellow left-armers Sri Lankan Chaminda Vaas (355) and Indian quick Zaheer Khan (220) ahead of him.
Johnson recovered from almost being dropped during last year’s Ashes series to be the world’s best-performed pacer with 63 Test wickets in 2009.
“I’ve played 30 games and some of the guys coming through now have only played a few so I feel that’s my responsibility to speak to those guys about conditions and the guys that we are playing against,” Johnson said. (ANI)
