Zaheer Khan: The Ace of India’s Pace Attack, and Rario Ambassador!

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Rario

3 min readJan 29, 2022

Rario encapsulates some of the most iconic moments of Zaheer Khan’s cricketing journey.

In an era where India was known for its tremendous batting riches and world class spinners, Zaheer Khan was the leader of their pace bowling across formats and often shouldered the responsibility of being the country’s strike bowler in a career spanning 14 years.

Watching Zak bowl was a pleasure for fans not only due to his effective bowling, but the visual appeal of his bowling action; the left-arm pacer would begin his run-up in a rhythmic motion and complete it with an iconic jump and release that has been copied by most cricket fans in their backyards.

Zaheer ended with 597 wickets in international cricket, the second most for an Indian fast bowler after Kapil Dev. He is also known for introducing the ‘knuckle ball’ variation to the international game.

Zak’s career had some memorable yet rare moments. We take a look at the most ‘Rario’ moments of Zaheer’s cricketing journey:

1) 2011 World Cup

Zaheer was the joint-highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 21 wickets and one of the protagonists of India’s victorious campaign. While he was consistent throughout and never went wicketless in any match, two performances of his stood out.

In the match against England, he returned to bowl when England needed 59 runs in eight overs with eight wickets in hand chasing 339. Zaheer bowled an incredible spell of three overs taking 3 wickets for 11 runs to bring India back into the game. The match ended in a thrilling tie and if not for Zak’s magical spell, England were on course for a win.

Zaheer also bowled brilliantly with the new ball in the World Cup Final against Sri Lanka, with figures of 5–3–6–1 in his opening spell where he dismissed Upul Tharanga and restricted Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara. Though he later conceded a few runs at the death, his new ball spell was important in denying Sri Lanka a bigger total.

2) Four consecutive sixes off Henry Olonga

In the last over of India’s innings during their ODI against Zimbabwe in 2001, Zaheer Khan smashed four consecutive sixes off the bowling of Henry Olonga to provide his side a blockbuster finish. Zaheer remained unbeaten on 32 off just 11 balls as his knock lifted India to a strong total of 283. Unfortunately, his heroics went in vain as Zimbabwe secured a one-wicket win in the chase.

3) 4/59 and 5/75 against England

In the Nottingham Test during the 2007 series, Zaheer Khan put in one of the finest performances of his career. He returned figures of 4/59 in the first innings as England were bundled out for 198. While batting, some English players tried to distract him by throwing jelly beans at the crease but Zak felt insulted by this act. It spurred him on further as he picked up a five-wicket haul in the second innings to end with match figures of 9/124 and India secured a comfortable win.

4) Winning runs in the 2002 NatWest Trophy Final

After a stunning partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif that kept the visitors alive in their chase of 326, it came down to the last over with India needing two to win and Zaheer Khan on strike. The nervousness of Indian fans increased as Zaheer played out two dot balls to start the over. But he made contact off the third delivery and sprinted for a single when an overthrow allowed him and Kaif to return for the second run that sealed a historic win for India.

5) 10-wicket haul against Bangladesh

Zaheer Khan recorded his career best figures in an innings (7/87) and a match (10/149) in the same Test against Bangladesh in 2010. His first innings spell included an instance of him taking 3 wickets in 4 balls. Zak was at his fiery best and picked up both the man of the match and series awards as India bagged an easy win.

Zaheer Khan is now on Rario and you can own your favourite moments of him both on and off the field! Rario is the world’s largest cricket NFT collectible platform that provides fans an opportunity to buy, trade, and collect the most cherished moments featuring Zaheer Khan as cricket NFTs.