মোহাম্মদ ইরফান

Imagine a lanky 7 ft 1 in pacer steaming in to bowl at you, wouldn't you be intimated? Forget about the bouncers, his length deliveries are good enough to create trouble for best of the batsmen. To attack a bowler, whose length balls itself reach chest height, would never be easy. Also famously known as the 'Burj Khalifa' of Pakistan, Mohammad Irfan is the tallest bowler ever in the history of international cricket. He has one of those inspirational stories for a small town boy, coming from a farming background and later working for a plastic pipe factory in order to hold up his family.

Mohammad Irfan got to represent Khan Research laboratories on the recommendation of Azhar Ali. On the back of few notable domestic performances, Irfan got a chance to feature for Pakistan. The lanky left-arm pacer made his ODI debut against England in 2010 but after being fraught with cramps and a not-so-impressive performance on debut, Irfan was dropped from the side without more ado.

After working hard on his fitness and pace for couple of years, Irfan got another chance to play for Pakistan and this time it was against India in 2012-2013. Irfan built pressure on Indian batsmen with his shipshape bowling and his partner Junaid Khan made the most out of it from the other end by picking wickets at regular intervals. End result - Pakistan won the 3-match series by thrashing India in their own backyard by a 2-1 margin. Since then Irfan featured regularly in Pakistan's ODI team until he was banned for a year by Pakistan Cricket Board for failing to report approaches to corrupt the game during Pakistan Super League 2017 in March the same year.

Irfan made his Test debut in 2013 but as he was prone to injuries he failed to cement his place in the longest format. In the limited-over formats, he has been mighty impressive, be it ODIs or T20Is. And more than taking wickets, it's his capability to contain batsmen that makes him a handy bowler. Any batsman in the world would find it intimidating when such a tall bowler delivers from an elevation of close to eight feet. In Pakistan Super League 2018 Mohammad Irfan is a part of Multan Sultans alongside speedsters like Junaid Khan and Sohail Tanvir, hence Sultans are one of the stronger contenders to win that PSL title.