Ajmal planning to become world's first bowler to take 100 T20 wickets

Veteran Pakistani spinner Saeed Ajmal has declared his desire to become the first bowler in the world to take 100 wickets in Twenty20 cricket.

The late-blooming off-spinner who did not play his first international game till he was past 30, Ajmal has winkled out 169 batsmen at 27.46 in 33 Tests, while 110 ODIs have fetched him 182 scalps at a frugal 22.24 and an impressive economy of 4.14.

However, The Nation reports that Ajmal is at his most effective in T20 cricket, where he is the highest wicket-taker with an astonishing 83 victims from just 61 games at an average of 17.22, and the player is determined to be the first to take 100 T20 scalps as he is just 17 wickets short of the record.

But as personally ambitious as he is, Ajmal has the team's interests paramount, with Pakistan needing to win against West Indies and Bangladesh in its bid to maintain an impressive record of having made the semi-final of every edition of the ICC World Twenty20 since its inception in 2007.

Ajmal, who is one of nine spinners among the top 10 in the ICC ratings for T20I international bowlers- the sole exception being Sri Lankan pacer Nuwan Kulasekara- with Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi also included in the list, the report added.