Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani, or Zaheer Abbas as he is more commonly known, was born on 24th July 1947, just twenty days before the creation of Pakistan. His father, Ghulam Shabbir, was engaged with plant protection in Bikaner, Rajasthan, and in the tumult of partition the family migrated to Sialkot where Zaheer spent his early years, before relocating to Karachi.In Karachi, Zaheer played with great success in his student days for Islamia College, and made his first-class debut for Karachi Whites in the Ayub Trophy tournament in 1966. He showed his penchant for big scores by scoring a mammoth 197 as his maiden first-class century in a match against East Pakistan in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in 1968. The following year a rich vein of form in the same tournament saw him gather 541 runs in 6 innings with 3 centuries and 2 fifties, thereby winning selection for the national team against New Zealand for the opening Test at Karachi in October 1969. A modest performance, with scores of 12 and 27, meant that he was dropped for the remaining Tests, but he again struck prime form in the next domestic season. Eight matches and eleven innings fetched him 962 runs at an average of 96.20. This included 5 centuries, including a top score of 202 and innings of 196 and 161. Four of his five hundreds came in successive innings. He was a natural pick for the Pakistan team touring England in the summer of 1971.

He began the tour with a brisk century against Worcestershire in the opening game and another one against Kent a few weeks later. In the first Test at Edgbaston, Aftab Gul was struck on the face by the third delivery of the match and had to be taken to hospital to have his facial wound stitched.

The lean, relatively unknown, bespectacled Zaheer now came to the wicket and against all expectations proceeded to produce a batting masterclass, completely dominating a strong English attack of Alan Ward, Peter Lever, Ken Shuttleworth, Derek Underwood, Ray Illingworth and Basil D’Oliveira. Playing with equal and effortless ease off both the back-foot and the front-foot, a continuous flow of exquisite strokes flowed from his bat. He produced an opulent exhibition of beautifully timed on-side shots that regularly pierced the field with uncanny precision, hooks, pulls and square cuts that sent the ball scurrying to the boundary with accelerating speed, and cover drives that bordered on the sublime, with the ball caressed to the fence with a fetching amalgam of grace and panache. He scored 274 before falling to a tired shot after nine hours at the crease. A rare talent had arrived and the gurus of the game raved in their praise, perhaps best summarized by the apt and pithy comment from Ted Dexter that “you must be some batsman if you can score a century every five knocks you have.” Zaheer had now scored 12 centuries in 60 first-class innings, including two double centuries and two scores in the 190s. When he reached 261 he also became the first man to complete a thousand first-class runs for the season. His 274 was also the highest score by a batsman in his first Test on English soil and earned him the sobriquet of “The Asian Bradman.”

Many counties were keen to enroll Zaheer and he opted for Gloucestershire, that had been graced by the legendary Wally Hammond in the past. Though he flourished on the county circuit, Zaheer’s Test match form deserted him after the 1971 English series. By the time Pakistan toured England again in 1974, Zaheer’s Test batting average had plummeted from 70.83 at the end of the 1971 series to 31.43 by the start of the third Test of the 1974 series. Zaheer now produced another masterpiece, with an innings of 240 at the Oval to resurrect his career. However, this was followed by lean performances against the visiting West Indies and New Zealand teams in the home series of 1974-75 and 1975-76.

The summer of 1976 saw Zaheer in surreal form in the English county season, scoring 2554 runs with 11 centuries at an average of 75.11. He carried his form over into Pakistan’s tour of Australia and the West Indies, with four successive scores of over fifty on the Australian leg of the tour. His innings of 85 and 101 helped Pakistan to save the 1st Test at Adelaide, and also brought Zaheer his first Test century outside the double hundreds versus England.

Zaheer continued to score heavily for Gloucestershire and hit a purple patch in Test cricket when India toured Pakistan in 1978. Taking a special liking for the Indian bowlers, he scored 583 runs at an average of 194.33, with his savage assault on their bowling playing an instrumental role in ending the careers of the famous spin quartet of Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Bedi and Venkataraghavan. Amul Butter, an Indian company reputed for creative advertising, displayed hoardings which read “Zaheer, Ab Bas (Zaheer now stop)… Have some Amul butter.”

The summer of 1976 saw Zaheer in surreal form in the English county season, scoring 2554 runs with 11 centuries at an average of 75.11. He carried his form over into Pakistan’s tour of Australia and the West Indies, with four successive scores of over fifty on the Australian leg of the tour. His innings of 85 and 101 helped Pakistan to save the 1st Test at Adelaide, and also brought Zaheer his first Test century outside the double hundreds versus England.

Zaheer’s appetite for runs continued unabated in county cricket and on the Pakistani domestic first class scene, but his form in Test cricket was surprisingly erratic for someone with his unquestioned ability. The Indian series was followed by a century against New Zealand but then a spate of relatively mediocre performances meant that by the end of Pakistan’s tour of England in 1982, Zaheer’s Test batting average had again dropped below the quality benchmark of 40 runs per innings. A total of 49 Tests had brought him 3154 runs at average of 39.92 runs per outing by this stage.

Zaheer now embarked on the most productive phase of his illustrious career. The next 22 Tests saw him pile up 1747 runs at an average of 74.45 runs per innings. Knocks of 91, 126 and 52 in consecutive innings against the visiting Australians, were followed by successive innings of 215, 186 and 168 against the touring Indian team. His score of 215 in the 1st Test against India at Lahore was also his 100th first class century, making him only the third non-Englishman, after Don Bradman and Glen Turner, and the first, and till now, the only Asian batsman to achieve this distinction. He also attained the honour of being the only batsman apart from Geoffrey Boycott, to score his hundredth first-class century in a Test match. His run of six consecutive Test scores of over fifty was, till then, bettered only by Everton Weekes tally of seven. He scored a total of 650 runs in the Test series against India, using just 783 deliveries in the process, for a strike rate of 83.01 runs per 100 balls, an amazing figure for Test cricket.

Against the touring Indians, Zaheer also excelled with the bat in the ODIs, scoring centuries in 3 consecutive encounters. In Tests and ODI’s combined, he had a run of 5 consecutive centuries which is still a world record. Zaheer took his ODI form into the 1983 World Cup, notching up 313 runs at an average of 62.60. This included an unbeaten 103 against New Zealand which, at the age of 35 years and 331 days, made him the 3rd oldest cricketer till then to score an ODI century, surpassed in age only by Geoffrey Boycott and Bevan Congdon. Later that year, while playing against India at Jaipur, Zaheer also reached the milestone of 2000 ODI runs in just 45 matches, the fastest to do so at the time.

When Imran Khan was incapacitated because of a stress fracture of his shin, Zaheer was entrusted with the captaincy of the national team in late 1983. He led the team in 14 Test matches, winning three, losing one and drawing the rest. By now his consummate batting skills were beginning to feel the effects of time. Another big innings of 168 against India at Lahore in October 1984 was the last major score Zaheer made for Pakistan. A year later the curtains were finally drawn on his stellar Test career.

Reflecting on Zaheer’s career, the figures make an impressive statement. In 78 Test matches he scored 5062 runs for an average of 44.79, with 12 centuries. He was the first Pakistani to reach both the 4000 and 5000 Test runs milestones. He scored over 1000 Test runs each against India, Australia and England, showing a special preference for Indian bowling from which he harvested 1740 runs in 19 Tests, including 6 centuries, at an average of 87.00 runs per innings. Of his 12 Test centuries 4 were double hundreds, while another 4 were scores of over 165. In ODIs he made 2572 runs in 60 innings, averaging 47.62, inclusive of 7 centuries with an ODI strike rate of 84.80 runs per 100 balls. In all first class matches he totaled 34,843 runs from 768 innings at an average of 51.54. This is the highest aggregate by any Pakistani player. With 108 first-class centuries he belongs to an elite list of just 25 batsmen who’ve scored 100 centuries or more in the 150-year history of the game. Zaheer scored a century in each innings of a match on eight occasions, which is a world record. Even more amazing is the fact that four of these occasions consisted of a double century and a century in the same match, another world record. Going further, he was unbeaten in all these eight innings, a feat that is unlikely to be ever repeated again.

Post retirement Zaheer continued to stay involved with the game. He was the manager of the Pakistan team during the infamous Oval Test incident in 2006. In 2015 he became the third cricketer, after Lord Colin Cowdrey and Sir Clyde Walcott, to be nominated to the post of the ICC President and was the last person to hold this distinction before it was abolished in 2016. He was also inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2020.

Given Zaheer’s exceptional ability, it is difficult to explain the vagaries of form that marked his career, periods of pure cricket artistry interrupted by stretches of indifferent play, virtuoso performances punctuated by common fallibility. There was also a certain vulnerability against extreme pace and a smaller quota of match winning knocks than is expected from someone who’s so naturally gifted. But when it came to style and grace he had few peers, watching him play was an act of pure joy. The journalist Michael Foot who helped Zaheer with his autobiography called him “a fugitive from another cricketing era: a shy prince who shimmers in white silks.” The high, curiously looped backlift, steely wrists, deft touches from soft hands, the willow subtly threading the ball through imperceptible gaps in the field, the majestic imperiousness of his cover drives, are images of Zaheer that will linger forever in the memory of those who witnessed them.

Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.

salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com