Pakistan

Pakistan's cricket has always been a theatre of the improbable, and their greatest productions have come from geniuses who redefined the game with raw flair. Imran Khan, the all-rounder prince, led them to the 1992 World Cup with a peerless mix of swing bowling, late-order hitting and sheer force of will. Then came Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who turned reverse swing into an art form and dismantled batting orders worldwide. With the bat, Javed Miandad's street-smart defiance and Inzamam-ul-Haq's unhurried elegance, and with the ball the raw speed of Shoaib Akhtar, produced a team that could beat anyone on its day, and on its worst day lose to anyone.

The history is a roller-coaster: the 1992 World Cup under Imran, the 2009 World Twenty20 won under Younis Khan, and the 2017 Champions Trophy, sealed with a crushing win over India in the final. Home grounds in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi have known both frenzied support and stark exile, after the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team drove international cricket out of Pakistan for years before its gradual return. Through it all, Pakistan cricket has endured, producing match-winners from Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq to Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. Unpredictability is the identity: a team never to be written off, capable of the sublime and the shocking in the same over.