Saeed Anwar is a former Pakistani cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team.[2] He has scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test matches and One Day International (ODI) matches on 11 and 20 occasions respectively during his international career.[3][1] He played 55 Tests and 247 ODIs for Pakistan scoring 4,052 and 8,824 runs respectively.[2] He was described by the BBC as "a world-class opener" and "one of the real batting stars of Pakistani cricket".[4] Anwar was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year, in 1997, and the cricket almanac Wisden noted his "rapid run-scoring".[5]
Anwar made his Test debut against the West Indies in a match where he was dismissed without scoring in either innings at the Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad in 1990.[6][7] His first Test century came against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve, Wellington in 1994.[8] His highest Test score of 188 not out came against India during the 1998–99 Asian Test Championship at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in February 1999.[9] In the same innings, he became the third Pakistan opening batsman not to be dismissed at the close of an innings.[10][N 1] Anwar scored Test centuries against seven different opponents at ten cricket grounds, including seven at venues outside Pakistan.[11][12] As of November 2016, he is ninth in the list of Test century-makers for Pakistan, a position he shares with Asif Iqbal and Azhar Ali.[13]
Anwar made his ODI debut during the 1888-89 Benson & Hedges World Series against the West Indies at the WACA Ground, Perth.[14] He achieved his first ODI century a year later against Sri Lanka at the Adelaide Oval.[15] He scored three consecutive centuries at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium in 1993, the second player to achieve this feat.[N 2] Anwar's score of 194, the highest by a Pakistan batsman, was made against India at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in 1997.[17][18][N 3] He scored all of his twenty ODI centuries against six different opponents, and was most successful against Sri Lanka, making seven against them.[1] As of November 2016, Anwar is the leading ODI century-maker for Pakistan, and is twelfth in the list of ODI century-makers.[20][21]
Cite error: There are <ref group=N>
tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=N}}
template (see the help page).