Imran Khan's 8 for 60 vs India — Karachi 1982

Imran had been outstanding in 1981 in Australia but had not led Pakistan to a series win against India.

Pakistan went into the series with home advantage and a confident attack including Sarfraz Nawaz.

The 1982-83 home series against India was Imran's coronation. He took 40 wickets at 13.95 across six Tests, opened the bowling with reverse swing that the visiting batsmen could not read, and led Pakistan to a 3-0 series win. The 8 for 60 at Karachi — backed up with 3 for 28 in the first innings — sealed an innings-and-86-run win and put Pakistan 1-0 up. Sunil Gavaskar called the spell 'as fast and as accurate as anything I have ever faced'. The series is also notable as the start of the institutional reverse-swing era — Imran taught Wasim Akram the technique on this tour, and within a decade reverse swing was a permanent feature of the Test game. Imran's series figures of 40 wickets at 13.95 remained the benchmark for an Asian fast bowler for 30 years.

“It was as fast and as accurate as anything I have ever faced.”

“Imran reverse-swung the old ball at 90 mph. We had no answer.”

Imran's series performance pushed him into the captaincy permanently within months.