India, Feb. 7 -- Whenever the term 'pacers' is and will be mentioned in the annals of cricket, Shoaib Akhtar will remain a constant. The Rawalpindi Express, as he was famously called, became the first-ever tearaway pacer to grace the world of international cricket. Of course, the renowned West Indies quartet of Andy Robers, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding defined the first-true era of fast bowling. As did Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee, but with Akhtar's emergence, the vision that a bowler could consistently bowl at 150 kph was realised.

With Akhtar's debut in 1997, Pakistan had produced a new addition to their factory of fast bowlers that had already delivered legends like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Akht...