Zaheer Abbas

Zaheer Abbas, the "Asian Bradman", was one of the finest batsmen of the 1970s and a pioneer of Pakistani batting elegance. Born on 24 July 1947 in Sialkot, he made his Test debut in 1969 and went on to score 5,062 Test runs and 2,572 ODI runs, with a staggering 108 first-class centuries — among the most in cricket history.

Career

Zaheer was famous for his immaculate cover drives and his prolific run-scoring. In 1982 he scored an extraordinary 27 first-class hundreds, a record for a single year that remains unmatched. He was a dominant force in county cricket with Gloucestershire for over a decade, and his 274 against England at Edgbaston in 1971 announced him on the world stage.

He later captained Pakistan and served as an administrator, including a term as the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2015-16 — the first Asian to hold the post.

Legacy

Zaheer Abbas is remembered as one of the most graceful batsmen the game has seen and a trailblazer for Pakistani cricket on the world stage, both as a player and as an administrator.