Zaheer Abbas

Zaheer Abbas
ظہیر عباس

Personal information
Full name	Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani
Born	24 July 1947 (1947-07-24) Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm offbreak
Test debut (cap 63)	October 24 1969 v New Zealand
ODI debut (cap 13)	August 31 1974 v England
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC
Matches	78	62	459
Runs scored	5062	2572	34843
Batting average	44.79	47.62	51.54
100s/50s	12/20	7/13	108/158
Top score	274	123	274
Balls bowled	370	280	2582
Wickets	3	7	30
Bowling average	44.00	31.85	38.20
5 wickets in innings	-	-	1
10 wickets in match	-	-	-
Best bowling	2/21	2/26	5/15
Catches/stumpings	34/-	16/-	278/-
Source: CricketArchive, 6 November 2005

Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani (Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی) (born 24 July 1947, Sialkot), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a former Pakistani cricketer, regarded as one of the finest batsman produced by that country. He is widely known as the "Asian Bradman", a reference to former Australian great Sir Donald Bradman. He is among few professional cricketers who used to wear spectacles.

Career

Abbas made his Test match debut in 1969, and in his second Test he scored 274 against England, still the fourth ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of four double-centuries Abbas made; only ten men have scored more. The last of his four Test double-centuries was an innings of 215 against India in 1983, the first of three centuries in consecutive Tests, and his hundredth first-class century; Abbas and Geoffrey Boycott are the only two batsmen to have scored their hundredth first-class century in a Test match.

Abbas, fondly called the 'Run Machine', also had great success in first-class cricket, and is the only Asian batsman to have scored one hundred first class centuries. He had a long stint with Gloucestershire county club; joining the county in 1972, he remained there for thirteen years. During that time he scored over a thousand runs in the majority of his thirteen seasons. He also made over two thousand runs in a single season on two occasions for the club (1976 and 1981). During those thirteen years at Gloucestershire, he played 206 First Class games, scoring over 16,000 runs. He averaged 49.79, hitting 49 hundreds and 76 fifties.

Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian Test captain, once said while commentating that the Indian players would often say to Zaheer, "Zaheer Ab-bas karo", which means "Zaheer, stop it now" in Urdu and Hindi, referring to Abbas' free scoring. He remains second on the list of all-time ICC ODI batting rankings.

Abbas had two stints as captain of the national team in 1981 and 1984. He retired from international cricket in 1985, and has officiated as a match referee in one Test and three ODI matches. He has also worked as the manager of the national team

One more thing about Zaheer Abbas, he is credited with ending careers of some good spinners from India. As a game plan, in 1979 and 1983, when India visited Pakistan, he adopted a attack on Indian spinners, which paid great dividends and the Indian spinners lost their rhythm and ended their career thereafter, Bishansingh Bedi, Prasanna, Duleep Doshi, these ended their career after they toured Pakistan, courtesy Zaheer Abbas and co.

Zaheer Abbas's career performance graph.

Career highlights

Test centuries

Zaheer Abbas's Test Centuries
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	274	2	England	Birmingham, England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground	1971
[2]	240	15	England	London, England	The Oval	1974
[3]	101	21	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	1976
[4]	176	27	India	Faislabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	1978
[5]	235*	28	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1978
[6]	135	31	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1979
[7]	134	46	Sri Lanka	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1982
[8]	126	51	Australia	Faislabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	1982
[9]	215	53	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1982
[10]	186	54	India	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	1982
[11]	168	55	India	Faislabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	1983
[12]	168*	70	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1984

One Day International centuries

Zaheer Abbas's One Day International Centuries
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	108	20	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	1981
[2]	123	26	Sri Lanka	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1982
[3]	109	31	Australia	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1982
[4]	118	34	India	Multan, Pakistan	Multan Cricket Stadium	1982
[5]	105	35	India	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1982
[6]	113	36	India	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	1983
[7]	103*	42	New Zealand	Nottingham, England	Trent Bridge	1983

External links

• Player profile: Zaheer Abbas from ESPNcricinfo

Sporting positions
Preceded by Javed Miandad	Pakistan Cricket Captain 1981–1982	Succeeded by Imran Khan
Preceded by Sarfraz Nawaz	Pakistan Cricket Captain 1984–1985	Succeeded by Imran Khan