Harsh Thakor
First Class Star
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2012
- Runs
- 3,519
- Post of the Week
- 2
No batsmen arguably ever exuded more grace or subtlety with the willow as Zaheer Abbas who carried a bat like a wand.His strokes were like the touches of a painters brush posessing the craft of a sculptor and the beauty of arose blooming.Abbas was like an architect and poet moulded into one.His deftest touches would send the best balls racing to the boundary.In 1st class cricket his performances were beater than that of Viv Richards or Sunil Gavaskar and comparable to Jack Hobbs or Walter Hammond.If First class record wa sthe criteria then Zaheer could arguably rank in the top 6 batsmen of all with his staggering record.No batsmen scored a century twice in a game on 8 occasions or scored a hundred and a double hundred in a single game 4 times.Zaher amassed a staggering 28843 runs at an average of 51.54 with 108 centuries.Zaheer amased over 1000 run sin an English season on 10 occasions and overall 15 times..Even Viv Richards or Sachin Tendulkar did not surpass Zaheer's staggering 2554 runs in 1976 or his phenomenal average of 88.69 in 1981.In ODI's Zaheer had the best average of 47.62 of his time and was on par with Viv Richards .Hard to envisage any batsmen more fluently finding the gap as Zaheer who could bissect the most impregnable fields.He was a class act when scoring 93 against the great West Indian pace attack in the 1979 world cup semi-final as wella s when scoring 84 and 108 v Australia in the triangular tournament down under in 1981-82.In test cricket unlike many Overseas greats Zaheer scored 2 double centuries in England which Sunil Gavaskar,Greg Chappell,Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar did not and averaged over 100 twice in a series unlike many al-time greats which he acheived against India.
However Zaheer was not at his best against express pace,particularly after 1977.He did average 57.16 with a century and 3 fifties in Australia in 1976-77 but never scored a century against West Indies.Zaheer was also uncomfortable against the moving ball.Zaheer was master of any ball on or around his off or leg stump but was vulnerable to anything upto his nose or moving away.Arguably against spin he was the best batsmen of his era.No player could manipulate the turning ball as meticuluoslu as Zaheer who resembled a connoiseur.
Imran Khan did not rank Zaheer in the class of 'great'and overall ranked Majid Khan ahead.Imran felt Zaheer did not perform in a crisis.Even Patrick Murphy felt the same without denying Zaheer's imortal contribution to cricketing artistrty.I feel Zaheer played in an era where pace bolwers were the equivalent of bomber airplanes when no headgear was available for batsmen.Never forget how well Zaheer played Lillee before era of Packer cricket like for rest of the world in 1972 or in 1976-77.Imagine Zaheer playing in the modern era where wickets are so batting friendly and so much advanced protective gear is provided for every part of the body.Zaheer would have been at greater ease tackling the likes of Holding and Croft with the modern protective gear.I would have backed him to be next to only Tendulkar or Kohli in run aggregate in ODI cricket if he played in the modern era and overshadowed many batsmen who averaged close to 50 in test cricket.On a slow batting wicket Zaheer at his best could be classed with Viv,Gavaskar or Greg Chappell while against spin in any condition sin the Tendulkar class.Viewers should read how great Micheal Holding ranks Zaheer Abbas or even Mike Procter.
In his era arguably Zaheer was only behind Viv Richards,Barry Richards,Gavaskar and the Chappell brothers as Sobers ranked him in 1979.
Adding 1st class and O.D.I.figures to tests Zaheer would in my view rate ahead of stars like Azharuddin,Vishwanath,Clive Lloyd,Boycott,Dilip Vengsarkar,Majid Khan,Aravinda De'Silva,Mahela Jayewardene,Alvin Kalicharan,Lawrence Rowe,Salim Malik,Mark Waugh,David Boon,Mark Taylor,Adam Gilchrist,Richie Richardson,Mohammad Yousuf ,Inzamam Ul Haq and Bill Lawry.
Amongst batsmen who averaged less than 50 the likes of Kanhai,Gower,Gooch ,Cowdrey,Harvey ,Dexter,May,Pieterson,Sehwag,Hanif Mohammad,Ian Chappell ,Martin Crowe would rank marginally ahead. Amongst batsmen who averaged above 50 with the possible exception of Mohammad Younus ,Joe Root and Younis Khan every batsmen would rank ahead.
Zaheer abbas would rank neck to neck with another great ,Glen Turner considering all forms of cricket who too was very prolific in Ist class cricket and ODI's.
Overall thus Zaheer could almost certainly make the top 50 batsmen of all time and approximately rank around the 40th place.In sole test cricket his rank may come around 55 th place.Overall amongst cricketers he may well rank within the top 100 cricketers of all time at around 85th place.
However Zaheer was not at his best against express pace,particularly after 1977.He did average 57.16 with a century and 3 fifties in Australia in 1976-77 but never scored a century against West Indies.Zaheer was also uncomfortable against the moving ball.Zaheer was master of any ball on or around his off or leg stump but was vulnerable to anything upto his nose or moving away.Arguably against spin he was the best batsmen of his era.No player could manipulate the turning ball as meticuluoslu as Zaheer who resembled a connoiseur.
Imran Khan did not rank Zaheer in the class of 'great'and overall ranked Majid Khan ahead.Imran felt Zaheer did not perform in a crisis.Even Patrick Murphy felt the same without denying Zaheer's imortal contribution to cricketing artistrty.I feel Zaheer played in an era where pace bolwers were the equivalent of bomber airplanes when no headgear was available for batsmen.Never forget how well Zaheer played Lillee before era of Packer cricket like for rest of the world in 1972 or in 1976-77.Imagine Zaheer playing in the modern era where wickets are so batting friendly and so much advanced protective gear is provided for every part of the body.Zaheer would have been at greater ease tackling the likes of Holding and Croft with the modern protective gear.I would have backed him to be next to only Tendulkar or Kohli in run aggregate in ODI cricket if he played in the modern era and overshadowed many batsmen who averaged close to 50 in test cricket.On a slow batting wicket Zaheer at his best could be classed with Viv,Gavaskar or Greg Chappell while against spin in any condition sin the Tendulkar class.Viewers should read how great Micheal Holding ranks Zaheer Abbas or even Mike Procter.
In his era arguably Zaheer was only behind Viv Richards,Barry Richards,Gavaskar and the Chappell brothers as Sobers ranked him in 1979.
Adding 1st class and O.D.I.figures to tests Zaheer would in my view rate ahead of stars like Azharuddin,Vishwanath,Clive Lloyd,Boycott,Dilip Vengsarkar,Majid Khan,Aravinda De'Silva,Mahela Jayewardene,Alvin Kalicharan,Lawrence Rowe,Salim Malik,Mark Waugh,David Boon,Mark Taylor,Adam Gilchrist,Richie Richardson,Mohammad Yousuf ,Inzamam Ul Haq and Bill Lawry.
Amongst batsmen who averaged less than 50 the likes of Kanhai,Gower,Gooch ,Cowdrey,Harvey ,Dexter,May,Pieterson,Sehwag,Hanif Mohammad,Ian Chappell ,Martin Crowe would rank marginally ahead. Amongst batsmen who averaged above 50 with the possible exception of Mohammad Younus ,Joe Root and Younis Khan every batsmen would rank ahead.
Zaheer abbas would rank neck to neck with another great ,Glen Turner considering all forms of cricket who too was very prolific in Ist class cricket and ODI's.
Overall thus Zaheer could almost certainly make the top 50 batsmen of all time and approximately rank around the 40th place.In sole test cricket his rank may come around 55 th place.Overall amongst cricketers he may well rank within the top 100 cricketers of all time at around 85th place.
