Hashim Amla: Mohammad Asif is the best bowler I've ever faced

Asif was banned from cricket for seven years for spot fixing and a separate year suspension for doping

Amla's answer might have surprised some people, but not his fellow pros (Getty)

Hashim Amla has come up against many of the modern greats of bowling in a glittering career, but has named shamed Pakistani international Mohammad Asif as the best he has ever faced.

36-year-old Asif, whose lazy action and high-leaping bowling stride made him into an icon, briefly flashed as one of international cricket's most lethal quick bowlers before a ban for performance-enhancing drugs derailed his career and then a seven-year ban for spot fixing took him away from the game.

Asif was released from prison in Canterbury, Kent, in 2012.

But in an interview with South African outlet SuperSport ahead of the final ODI against Pakistan, Hashim Amla revealed that no bowler has troubled him more than Asif in his prime.

“Mohammad Asif is the best one [I have faced]," he said.

"[I know] he got banned for [spot] fixing but, at that stage, he was the best fast bowler I’ve ever faced. He was not quick, 135kph maybe, but his accuracy was phenomenal.

"We played him in South Africa and even in Pakistan in 2007. [If] he landed in the first stump I didn’t know if it was nipping away or nipping in… He tested your defence really, to the maximum,” the Proteas batsman said.

“Funnily enough, as the years have gone by, meeting other cricketers from home, the world over, just loosely chatting… so many of the guys feel exactly the same thing. They said Mohammad Asif was a magician of the ball in a way,” Amla added.