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Magic of Saeed Anwar's wrists

U

Uzair Gooner

Tape Ball Star
Joined
Dec 6, 2014
Runs
649
Is there any other batsman who could use his wrists like Saeed?

Here are some examples

Just a mere flick of his wrist, mind you it was 1980s hence bat technology was nowhere like it is today

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A length ball from Mcgrath, flicked over mid wicket for six

mcgrath.gif


From the backfoot against a bowler of Mark Ealham's pace

ealham.gif


Best for the last, against Prasad

prasad.gif


Can anyone post any other examples sublime wrist work?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Saeed anwar, azharudding, salim malik, damien martyn and vvs laxman were a treat to watch.
 
They don't them like that anymore. :(

Such sad times we live in. Thick bats and short boundaries makes even an average batsman look better than an ATG.
 
Its really sad, poor decision/judgment from Imran Khan took away his 4 years of test cricket.
 
One of my all-time favourite batsmen.

Always enjoyed watching him bat. He had the ability to play some of the most fantastic shots you could ever imagine.
 
troodon said:
What did Imran do?

I thought Imran had an eye for spotting great talent.
Click to expand...

Saeed came into the side during 1989 season, had a good ODI series in Australia, where he scored a 89 ball 120 vs SL but was dropped after few failures... he didn't come back until 1994
 
World class talent with school level fitness... No wonder he was dropped by the Imran khan.

Some of the yuvraj wristy sixes are treat to watch
 
Hawkeye said:
Yes, top notch in Tests too.

I didn't really understand Tests at that time, but I reckon he'd still be in top 2 or top 3 Test openers in the 90s.

But ODIs has no match. :baelish
Click to expand...

You call Tendulkar a FTB in ODIs but Anwar was no different.Strictly talking about ODI cricket here. I consider him a much better Test opener than ODI opener even though most recognize him by his ODI exploits
 
aliasad1998 said:
You call Tendulkar a FTB in ODIs but Anwar was no different.Strictly talking about ODI cricket here. I consider him a much better Test opener than ODI opener even though most recognize him by his ODI exploits
Click to expand...

I know, both Saeed and SRT were poor overseas in ODIs. :D

But Saeed had more impact and was aesthetically a lot more pleasing to watch, too. Kohli-esque destructive.
 
Hawkeye said:
I don't think that's true at all.

He's not remembered like Lara/Ponting/SRT because he didn't play as many games as them!

He was the best opener in the 90s, better than SRT -- but then left cricket. Only if he had played more!
Click to expand...

No that isn't the reason. At the end of the 90s both Lara and Sachin were simply better
 
Uzair Gooner said:
Saeed came into the side during 1989 season, had a good ODI series in Australia, where he scored a 89 ball 120 vs SL but was dropped after few failures... he didn't come back until 1994
Click to expand...

So pretty much Anwar lost 5 years of his career. As [MENTION=131038]badsha001[/MENTION] said, Imran might have hated Anwar's lack of fitness.

Who cares about fitness when you have great hand eye coordination and can score better than run a ball and that too in 90's. Anwar was amazing and I remember many times where he made us Indian fan's cry and envy his talent.
 
Best wrists in all of cricket. Other modern players who come close are Amla, Yousuf and Kohli but no one was better at playing those flicks. Lovely.
 
Fantastic player, would have thrived in the modern era. Would back him to average 45 plus in Odis had he been playing in this era.
 
troodon said:
What did Imran do?

I thought Imran had an eye for spotting great talent.
Click to expand...

Uzair Gooner said:
Saeed came into the side during 1989 season, had a good ODI series in Australia, where he scored a 89 ball 120 vs SL but was dropped after few failures... he didn't come back until 1994
Click to expand...

troodon said:
So pretty much Anwar lost 5 years of his career. As [MENTION=131038]badsha001[/MENTION] said, Imran might have hated Anwar's lack of fitness.

Who cares about fitness when you have great hand eye coordination and can score better than run a ball and that too in 90's. Anwar was amazing and I remember many times where he made us Indian fan's cry and envy his talent.
Click to expand...

Imran retired in early 1992; are you saying he had external influence on selectors to not select Anwar for 2 years before his comeback ?
 
Haroon786 said:
Imran retired in early 1992; are you saying he had external influence on selectors to not select Anwar for 2 years before his comeback ?
Click to expand...

Two things:
- imran is on video in one of the post match interviews on that Australia tour talking about how anwars approach to batting would give the team heart attacks. After all it was unheard of, at that time to charge at the opposition's opening bowlers that too in Australia. Imran always believed that openers job was to see off shine of the ball.
- after that high impact tour anwar made a test debut vs the mighty windies and bagged a pair. Imran hated players who couldn't raise their game vs the windies. Anwar was cast aside for a while, as he was seen as too loose/aggressive/soft to be a test opener. So that kept him out till 92. Being dropped by Imran usually was quite difficult to overcome at the time.
 
Pete Rose said:
Two things:
- imran is on video in one of the post match interviews on that Australia tour talking about how anwars approach to batting would give the team heart attacks. After all it was unheard of, at that time to charge at the opposition's opening bowlers that too in Australia. Imran always believed that openers job was to see off shine of the ball.
- after that high impact tour anwar made a test debut vs the mighty windies and bagged a pair. Imran hated players who couldn't raise their game vs the windies. Anwar was cast aside for a while, as he was seen as too loose/aggressive/soft to be a test opener. So that kept him out till 92. Being dropped by Imran usually was quite difficult to overcome at the time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining why Anwar was dropped but the point is that Imran retired in 1992 - 2 years before Anwar was recalled, it isn't accurate to fault Imran for all of the 5 years and besides, at that stage Anwar wasn't the player he would become when he made his comeback to the team.
 
Absolutely.

Him and Azharuddin had the best wrists. Incredible skill.
 
Highly underrated by Pakistanis when talking about our Atg batsmen. Test centuries on his first tours to Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka. Test century in South Africa as well. Should have played double the tests he did for a player of his stature, but for tragedy, poor fitness, and bias.
Competed with the best of his time in Odi's (tendulkar, lara). By performance our 3rd best batsmen across formats after Javed and Inzi. Definitely top tier odi player, 20 odi centuries by a 90's player, ridiculous.
What's more ridiculous are those leg-side flicks for 6, still don't understand how he managed them, for someone who wasn't particularly powerful. Favourite batsmen of my youth.
 
A magnificent player to watch when on song but I felt Anwar had it in him to achieve more. He could get out in the most casual and infuriating ways at times.
 
troodon said:
What did Imran do?

I thought Imran had an eye for spotting great talent.
Click to expand...

Saeed Anwar debut in 1990 in test match againat WI
Got pair in debut match and never given chance again, his 2nd chance came in 1994
And in 2nd match on return(in his 3rd test match), he scored 169 in NZ
 
He is right up there even though I think he massively under-achieved given his obvious talents. Very very under-rated.
 
Haroon786 said:
Thanks for explaining why Anwar was dropped but the point is that Imran retired in 1992 - 2 years before Anwar was recalled, it isn't accurate to fault Imran for all of the 5 years and besides, at that stage Anwar wasn't the player he would become when he made his comeback to the team.
Click to expand...

It's wrong to look at this in years rather than seasons. I've steady explained why he didn't make it to the World Cup squad, but thereafter it's not as long as ppl. make it sound. Pakistan played the World Cup final on march 25th, 1992. Thereafter there was a tour of England and West Indies which Anwar was not a part of - but he was back playing odi's in march 1993, so it wasn't two years post Imran, just one year. And he was back playing tests in feb 1994 in NZ. The only reason he didn't play any tests in 1993 (after his three centuries on the trot in Odis) was because if I recall correctly he was either injured or we didn't have any tests other than a tour from Zimbabwe that year.
 
He's another one of the Pakistani players who underachieved big time preventing him for reaching a greater status.
Those wristy shots are magical.
 
160KPH said:
He's another one of the Pakistani players who underachieved big time preventing him for reaching a greater status.
Those wristy shots are magical.
Click to expand...

A lack of emphasis on fitness has to blame for it. Wasim in his interview a couple of days ago mentioned that Anwar had some 'setting' with the team doc which always allowed him to pass the fitness test with flying colours.
 
Syed1 said:
A lack of emphasis on fitness has to blame for it. Wasim in his interview a couple of days ago mentioned that Anwar had some 'setting' with the team doc which always allowed him to pass the fitness test with flying colours.
Click to expand...
haha that was so shocking to hear

apparently he was acing fitness tests for a while so some of them dug deeper and found out he had a 'setting' with the fitness coach
 
Hawkeye said:
I know, both Saeed and SRT were poor overseas in ODIs. :D

But Saeed had more impact and was aesthetically a lot more pleasing to watch, too. Kohli-esque destructive.
Click to expand...

How?

Tendulkar had a far better SR iirc..

Ganguly was better than both SRT and Anwar overseas in the 90s.
 
street cricketer said:
How?

Tendulkar had a far better SR iirc..

Ganguly was better than both SRT and Anwar overseas in the 90s.
Click to expand...

By the end of 1999, Anwar averaged 40.02 @ SR of 82.96, 17 centuries.

By the end of 1999, Sachin averaged 42.85 @ SR of 86.79, 24 centuries.
 
Saees Ansar was a true classic act. One of Pakistans best, underachieving massively.
Still was one of the most beautiful players to watch
 
Pete Rose said:
It's wrong to look at this in years rather than seasons. I've steady explained why he didn't make it to the World Cup squad, but thereafter it's not as long as ppl. make it sound. Pakistan played the World Cup final on march 25th, 1992. Thereafter there was a tour of England and West Indies which Anwar was not a part of - but he was back playing odi's in march 1993, so it wasn't two years post Imran, just one year. And he was back playing tests in feb 1994 in NZ. The only reason he didn't play any tests in 1993 (after his three centuries on the trot in Odis) was because if I recall correctly he was either injured or we didn't have any tests other than a tour from Zimbabwe that year.
Click to expand...

I think it's fair to say that a formative Saeed Anwar would not have produced the same run scoring form he later produced. Also Imran although there is no evidence that he would deliberately omit Saeed for the 2-3 years that he missed, even so thereafter he should've been selected after the 92 WC but that's fair enough - his comeback was between 3-4 years not the 5 that some on here are imagining.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 2003. At the age of 34 Saeed Anwar retired from cricket. Anwar scored 4052 runs at 45.52 in 55 Tests & 8823 runs at 39.21 in 247 ODIs. His most memorable innings was 194 against India at Madras in 1997 - at that time the highest score by any batter in ODIs <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/PJ3XbwjWmV">pic.twitter.com/PJ3XbwjWmV</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SajSadiqCricket/status/1559090249413922817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Totally disappeared from the public eye since retirement.

Anyone knows his whereabouts?

Could become a good chief selector or be used in NCA.
 
BunnyRabbit said:
Totally disappeared from the public eye since retirement.

Anyone knows his whereabouts?

Could become a good chief selector or be used in NCA.
Click to expand...

Gave up on cricket - concentrates on Tableegh from what I understand.
 
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