List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Imran Khan

Imran Khan, a retired Pakistani cricketer and former Prime Minister of Pakistan, took 24 five-wicket hauls during his career in international cricket. In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer")^[1] refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement,^[2] and as of 2014 fewer than 45 bowlers have taken more than 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers.^[3][4][5] A right-arm fast bowler who represented his country between 1971 and 1992, Khan was described by the BBC as "one of the finest fast bowlers cricket has ever seen",^[6] while ESPNcricinfo declared him as "the greatest cricketer to emerge from Pakistan, and arguably the world's second-best allrounder after Garry Sobers".^[7][8][9] In 1983 he was named as one of the five Cricketers of the Year by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack,^[10] and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in January 2009.^[11][12]

Khan made his Test debut in 1971 against England at Edgbaston Cricket Ground.^[13] His first Test five-wicket haul came in 1977 against Australia in a match at Melbourne Cricket Ground which Pakistan lost.^[14] In the same year, he took his first pair of five-wicket hauls in a single match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.^[15] By the end of his career, he had claimed five-wickets hauls in both innings of a match on three occasions.^[15][16][17] His career-best figures for an innings were 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Gaddafi Stadium, in March 1982.^[16] He took ten or more wickets in a match on six occasions.^[18]

Having made his One Day International (ODI) debut in August 1974^[19] against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham,^[20] Khan's solitary ODI five-wicket haul came in 1985 against India in a match at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium which Pakistan lost.^[21] He took 6 wickets for 14 runs in the match, which was his career-best bowling in ODI cricket.^[21] By the time he retired from international cricket in 1992 after nearly 21 years,^[19] Khan had taken 23 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket^[4] and one in ODIs.^[21] As of 2017^[update], he is fifteenth overall among all-time combined five-wicket haul takers, a position which he shares with Sydney Barnes, Kapil Dev and Dennis Lillee.^{[note 1][3]}