Tauseef Ahmed

A wild off-spinner whose disguise was the loop that he generated by tossing it up. A thick moustache with a poker face deceived many a batsmen. He often was overshadowed by his more distinguished and famous partner-in-crime - Abdul Qadir. But that never deterred Tauseef from bowling tirelessly on either seaming or flat wickets, having to earn every wicket.

697 wickets from 176 first-class games does talk about the rich vein of experience he garnered playing at the domestic level. But even at the international level, his numbers did shine through for Pakistan. The highlight of his career being the 9 wickets at Bengaluru in Sunil Gavaskar's swansong Test in 1987. Match figures of 9/77 against the Lankans at Kandy a year ago remained his career best.

A career spanning over 13 years from 1980-93 had him featuring in only 34 games and that was majorly due to benign wickets or the presence of Abdul Qadir. But even then Tauseef did carve a niche for himself with his flight and guile.