Abdul Qadir's cricket career in numbers

Abdul Qadir’s cricket career in numbers: Most of the current generation know Abdul Qadir as the bowler against whom Sachin showed his first glimpse of greatness. But in reality, he is much more than that. One of the greatest spin bowlers of his generation, he was the one who singlehandedly brought back the dying art of wrist spin, and was carrying the baton for the leg spinners before handing it over to Shane Warne.

On his 60^th birthday, let us look into some of the statistics of this Pakistani great. Abdul Qadir’s cricket career in numbers:

1977 – Abdul Qadir made his debut against England in 1977 at the Gaddafi stadium. He managed to pick up only one wicket in the solitary inning he bowled.

236 – The number of wickets he managed to take in the 67 Tests he played. He stands 5^th in the list of most number of wickets taken by a Pakistani bowler in Tests.

9/56 – His best figures, coming against England in 1987 at home. This is the highest bowling figures by a Pakistani bowler in Tests.

2 – The number of man of the series titles he managed to get in his Test career. The first he got for taking 22 wickets against a touring Australia in 1982-1983. The second he got for taking 30 wickets in 3 matches against England in 1987.

5 – The number of man of the match titles he has won in Test cricket. Two against Australia and three against England.

1029 – Number of runs Abdul Qadir managed to score in the longer format, at an average of 15.59

104 – ODIs played by Abdul Qadir, he made his ODI debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in the 1983 World Cup. During his career, he managed to bag 132 wickets at an impressive average of 26.

5/44 – His best bowling figures in an ODI match, coming against Sri Lanka in the 1983 World Cup.

641 – Number of runs Abdul Qadir scored in ODIs, with his highest score being 41* .

3 – Number of international fiftes Abdul Qadir has, all of them in the longer format. His highest score of 61 came against England at Karachi.

5 – Number of Test matches Abdul Qadir has captained the national team. But his tenure as a captain was poor, as he lost 4 out of the 5.

1993 – Qadir played his last international match against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in the year 1993. He retired from the longer format 3 years ago, playing his last Test against West Indies at Gaddafi Stadium in 1990.