Abdul Qadir is considered one of the best leg spinners of the world. He revived the art of leg spinning in the 80s. The Lahore born Abdul Qadir made his debut against England in 1977 but his lackluster performance failed to make his presence felt.
In 1978, his performance in his 2nd test series was hampered by injury. However being a spirited guy, he made a tremendous comeback in 1982 and played a crucial part in Pakistan’s success against England. Abdul Qadir took six wickets in the test match played at Lords.
Incidentally his best performances have been against England. In 1987, Pakistan won its first ever series against England on the English soil. Abdul Qadir contributed to this victory by taking 19 wickets in the three test series. He captured 10 wickets at the Kennington Oval.
Again against England he took 9 wickets for 56 runs; this is also the best innings performance by any Pakistani bowler so far. In a first class career spanning over two decades, He took 960 wickets. Although he was not much of a batsman, Qadir at times surprised everyone with his powerful batting.
He had an interesting rather funny bowling action. He himself confessed that he adopted this particular style to distract the batsman. A gifted bowler, he disguised his deliveries and often left the batsman clueless. Qadir produced so much variation in bowling which made him quite unpredictable.
His natural talent was strongly supported by his captain Imran Khan. Abdul Qadir was made the Chief Selector of the PCB but he resigned over some issues with the PCB bosses and differences of opinion. Abdul Qadir passed away on 6th September, 2019 in Lahore at the age of 63 due to cardia arrest. He was known as the Pride of Pakistan.
