Zaheer Abbas

If George Headley was the Black Bradman, Zaheer Abbas was christened as the Asian Bradman by fans, for his voracious appetite for runs. In only his second Test, Abbas scored his highest Test score of 274, and followed it up with consistent scores after that. He was to score three more double centuries after that, underlying his appetite for making runs, once he got going and set in the crease.

Abbas also played in 62 ODIs, scoring at an average of almost 48, and a strike rate of 85, in days when there were no fielding restrictions, and fielding captains could place all their fielders on the boundary! Zaheer Abbas batted liked an artist when he got going, his high back lift combined with his ability to play off the front or the back foot with equal ease, made him look as graceful as anyone else. But if one thought this was all, he also holds the record for being the first Asian to score more than 100 first class centuries, a record which has not been broken for years. This, he achieved by playing for Gloucestershire for more than a decade, scoring almost 35k runs.

This also helped him get another nickname, that of ‘Run Machine’. His only weakness was against the genuinely quick bowling, as his average of 18.50 against the Windies shows. Zaheer Abbas retired from the game in 1985, after not being allowed to continue in only the ODIs by the selectors.