Though we have grown to love our Indian cricketers, we should also appreciate the cricketers of our neighbouring country as well. The ’70s and ’80s were a period in cricket that saw some great cricketers come out from Southeast Asian nations. The Pakistan team mostly known for their fierce bowling attacks also had some incredible batters in their ranks and one of them is Zaheer Abbas.
Zaheer Abbas was known to be one of the finest middle-order batters for Pakistan known for his elegant strokeplay. Abbas had a successful international career where he scored over 7500 runs and had an average of excess of 40 in both formats. He is mostly known for his great innings in Test matches where he has played some wonderful knocks for Pakistan. This has been a career to look forward to for everyone.
So, here are the top 3 best performances from Zaheer Abbas in Test matches which are memorable:
3. 235 vs India in 1978
This might have been an Indian team that was struggling for form, but they still had some solid players and it was always tough to play with the arch-rivals. India was bowled out for just 199, but Pakistan still needed to put runs on the board and this time it came in the form of Zaheer Abbas who scored 235 runs to take Pakistan to a massive total. The Indians did try to come back in the second innings but the damage was done thanks to Abbas and his iconic innings which helped the hosts in the second Test at Lahore.
2. 240 vs England in 1974
Playing against England in England is always tough for the players from the subcontinent, but Zaheer Abbas made it look easy for everyone at the Oval. Pakistan had a great start in the match scoring 600 in the first innings with the help of a brilliant 240 runs from Abbas in the first innings. The England batters were also up to the task and in the end, the match was a draw. However, it was Zaheer Abbas’s innings that will always remain the biggest highlight of this game.
1. 274 vs England in 1971
If you thought that Zaheer was a big threat to England in 1974, you never learnt about him in 1971. Once again Zaheer Abbas was in the middle and played another phenomenal innings against England this time at Edgbaston. Pakistan once again scored over 600 runs in the first innings and once again Zaheer scored a brilliant 274 runs in 467 deliveries. This once again put the England team under pressure who only managed to edge out a draw in the end. This was one of the moments where England had to bow down to the class of this World class batter.