Wisden overview
Wasim Raja and his younger brother Ramiz had strikingly similar batting records in Test cricket. But Wasim was a bearded left-hand middle-order batsman, whereas Ramiz was a clean-shaven right-hand opener. Wasim could bowl as well, brisk, flat top-spinners rather than legbreaks, pioneering the style followed by Anil Kumble and Shahid Afridi. Wasim also had one outstanding series when he proved himself the most effective of some very fine Pakistan batsmen in the West Indies in 1976-77. He might have made a good Pakistan captain in a rather old-fashioned amateur swashbuckling fashion, but coming from the country's elite, studying in Durham and marrying an Englishwoman, he tended to be above the political battle. This, however, stood him in good stead in later life, when he was appointed as one of the ICC's elite panel of match referees. Scyld Berry

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