ISLAMABAD: Former England Skipper Nasser Hussain has picked Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar among the four cricketers whom he would pay to watch.

The other three cricketers include India’s Virat Kohli, West Indian Brian Lara and his own countryman David Gower.

About Saeed, Nasser said that his strokes on the off-side had lot of grace and elegance.

The southpaw had nearly 13,000 runs in a career that spanned from 1989 to 2003. Saeed also held the record for the highest individual ODI score of 194 for many years. He retired from the game in 2003 after the World Cup.

“In terms of being easy on the eye, Saeed Anwar had an elegance and grace through the off-side,” Nasser was quoted as saying during a session with Daily Mail, as quoted by crictracker.com.

Nasser has also been in awe of the legendary Lara, who is the only batsman to have an individual score of 400 in Test cricket. Nasser was impressed with Lara’s high back-lift that helped him generate power in his strokes and also depicted the Caribbean flair.

Virat has also caught Nasser’s eyes. The Delhi-born Kohli has 70 international centuries to his name and is expected to add more to his tally.

“Most importantly, he thrives under pressure in run-chases,” said Nasser. “The 31-year-old has the potential to chase down any score in the ODI format.”

Gower, on the other hand, notched in excess of 11,300 runs for England in a career psanning from 1978 to 1992. Having scored 25 centuries and 51 half-centuries, the Kent-born player was a stalwart in the England line-up.

Nasser reminisced a shot Gower played during a county match.

“My childhood hero was David Gower. I remember an early game against Leicestershire and I was at cover point as he leaned on one leg and before I could move, hit the boundary boards behind me. Everything I had admired of him was there in front of my eyes,” he added.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2020