When the Pakistan team reached Lord's on August 12 1982, their opener Mudassar Nazar was a worried man. Pakistan had lost the first Test of the series and Mudassar had fared disastrously in that match. He had scored a duck in both innings. Pakistan desperately needed a better effort by their team in the second Test.

wAs usual, Mudassar started cautiously and reached 20. It seemed he had settled into the innings when he was caught behind against the run of play. To make matters worse for him, his opening partner Mohsin Khan scored an unbelievable double ton on the same wicket. Pakistan ended with a healthy 400 plus score. The mercurial Abdul Qadir then spun England out for 227 and Pakistan were ahead in the match and asked England to follow on. For some strange reason Mudassar was handed the ball in England’s second innings. Opener Derek Randall was clean bowled by Mudassar. Next in was the talented Allan Lamb who was caught plumb to a Mudassar delivery for nought. English skipper David Gower came in to bat in his usual nonchalant manner with the expectation that he would quickly and smoothly bail the team out of trouble. Gower lasted only three balls as Mudassar had him caught behind. Mudassar Nazar’s next two victims were Ian Botham whom he had caught by Sarfaraz Nawaz and then Mike Gatting edged one to the great Wasim Bari. In 19 overs Mudassar Nazar had single handedly rattled England at the mecca of cricket to pick up 6 top order wickets.

That was the great utility power of the son of Nazar Mohammad. Mudassar’s father faced the first ball received by a Pakistan player in Test cricket. He then immediately became the country’s first Test centurion. Imagine the pressure when Mudassar inevitably had to step into his father’s shoes. Father-son duos in test cricket are still rare because it's for a child to match the sporting skill of their parents when it comes to sports. My respect for Mudassar Nazar began with this background in mind.

There are some cricketers who are so flamboyant that they end up being the darling of the crowds. It's a perfectly legitimate way for a cricketer to enter the hearts of the people. Then there are those who gain the respect of their fellow teammates by their grit and determination. The likes of Javed Miandad fall in this category. But there is another category that we rarely talk about. Its sincerity and honesty. Mudassar Nazar was such a sincere and honest cricketer. He was a trier with both bat and ball. Opening in Test matches is one of the hardest jobs in cricket. Perhaps second only to fast bowling.

Mudassar had immense powers of concentration as a batsman. To get his first Test ton he batted 591 minutes and faced 449 balls. His next century came against India in Bengaluru where he faced 337 balls and batted for 450 minutes. In Karachi in 1982 he scored 119 in 294 minutes against India and helped Pakistan win against India by an innings and 86 runs.

The following year in a famous match against India at Hyderabad (Pakistan), Mudassar scored a double century along with Javed Miandad to help Pakistan reach a mammoth 581. Mudassar batted for 627 minutes to score his double ton. Pakistan again won by an innings and 119 runs. In this series he scored another hundred against India to save the day for his team. In a team total of 323, Mudassar scored 152. In the very next test Mudassar again batted for 458 minutes to score 152 again. Mudassar reserved his best against India. In a Test match at Faisalabad against India Mudassar batted for 552 minutes to fall short of a double ton by one run. Out of his 10 Test hundreds, five came against India.

Mudassar’s finest hour came in 1987 in the away series against England. Pakistan drew four test matches and defeated England at Leeds to win their first series on English soil. Mudassar contributed consistently throughout the series. In the 4th Test at Birmingham Mudassar batted for 416 minutes to score 124. It helped Pakistan to have the upper hand in the Test. Mudassar scored 74.

In a nutshell Mudassar Nazar is one of the great servants of Pakistan cricket. His utility to his national side is second to none. If I were to sit down and pick my all time Pakistani side (the cricketers I saw) I would pick Mudassar in a jiffy. He took 66 Test wickets for his team even though he was a specialist opening batsman. How incredible is that as a statistic?

Mudassar Nazar had to cope up with the pressure of being the son of an established cricketer. Few people might know that it was Mudassar Nazar who played a huge role in grooming cricketers like Wasim Akram.

After retirement Mudassar coached the Kenyan national side with the same sincerity with which he played cricket for his national side. He served as a Director of the National Cricket Academy of Pakistan and finally made a huge contribution at the ICC’s global cricket academy at Dubai. I do not know where the cricket loving people of Pakistan would place Mudassar Nazar in terms of his contribution to the game. That is for the cricket loving people of Pakistan to decide. As an Indian, I have the utmost respect for Mudassar Nazar for he batted gallantly against us.

– Kush Singh is a cricket historian and columnist and founder of The Cricket Curry Tour Company. He has attended close to two hundred Test matches all over the world