The Pakistani team recently faced a humiliating 0-2 defeat in the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. This was the first time that Pakistan lost a Test series against Bangladesh. This defeat at home will haunt the Pakistani players for a long time. At one time, it was very difficult to defeat Pakistan in Test matches at home, but with time this trend changed.
Anyway, the Pakistani team is not that strong now. There was a time when the Pakistani team had an army of brilliant players. Opener Saeed Anwar’s name was also included in this. Saeed Anwar, who held the record for the highest individual score for 12 years, turned 56 today (6 September). Anwar’s international cricket career lasted for 13 years (1990-2003). During this time, he played many memorable innings with the bat.
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Saeed Anwar performed brilliantly in Test cricket, especially on foreign soil. His first Test century was against New Zealand in Wellington in 1994 (169 runs). Then he scored 176 runs against England in the Oval Test in 1996. After this, he scored an unbeaten 188 against India in Kolkata in 1998, which was his highest Test score. However, Anwar’s ODI record was even more spectacular than Tests.
…when Anwar raised a rebellion against India
Saeed Anwar scored 194 runs against India in Chennai in 1997, which was the highest ODI innings at that time. Interestingly, captain Sachin Tendulkar himself bowled and got Saeed Anwar caught by Sourav Ganguly and prevented him from scoring a double century. Saeed Anwar held the record for the highest individual score in ODI history for 12 years. In 2009, Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry equaled this magical figure by playing an unbeaten innings of 194 runs.
However, just three years later, Sachin Tendulkar registered his name in the record books by playing a historic innings of 200 runs. Saeed Anwar scored 4052 runs in 55 Test matches for Pakistan at an average of 45.52. During this, 11 centuries and 25 half-centuries came from his bat. While in 247 ODIs, he scored 8824 runs at an average of 39.21. He scored 20 centuries and 43 half-centuries during this period.
The end of Test career after the death of his daughter
If we look at it, Saeed Anwar said goodbye to international and first class cricket on 15 August 2003. But his test career had ended two years earlier. The Multan Test played in August 2001 proved to be the last test for this opening batsman, which Pakistan played against Bangladesh. Despite scoring a century in that test, he did not play test cricket again and retired from international cricket after two years.
In that Multan Test match, five Pakistani batsmen scored centuries in the score of 546/3 runs (which is a joint record with Australia for most centuries in a Test innings). Saeed Anwar was also among them. He scored 101 runs. Which proved to be his 11th and last century. In fact, two days after Saeed Anwar scored a century on the first day of the Multan Test (29 August 2001), his three and a half year old daughter Bismah died after a long illness. He returned to Lahore. After this he never played a Test match again.
… then Anwar became inclined towards religion
After the untimely death of his daughter, Saeed Anwar turned towards religion. He also grew his beard. Meanwhile, Anwar kept moving in and out of the ODI team. In the 2003 World Cup, he scored a fighting century against India, but Pakistan lost that match. Anwar dedicated that century to his late daughter. After retirement, Anwar got completely involved in propagating Islam. His videos keep going viral on social media.
When Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf embraced Islam in 2004, Saeed Anwar helped him a lot. Yousuf had clearly said in an interview that Anwar played the most important role in his reciting Kalma. Before embracing Islam, Yousuf was known as Yohana.
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