Our batsmen took Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar to cleaners, reveals Javed Miandad

At the peak of glorious India-Pakistan rivalry, Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas formed a great partnership between themselves and the 1978-79 tour was a testament to that. The series was significant from the prospect of it being the first Test series in 17 years between the two countries as the cricket board revived ties post-Indian emergency. While a little more than the scorecard had been documented back then, Miandad, a youngster then, opened up about how the Pakistani batsmen hit Indian spinners left, right and centre.

“Chandrasekhar, Bedi, Prasanna… India’s strength was this, their spinners. And they did well around the world but when they came here , they were taken to the cleaners. Our players robbed them for so many runs,” Miandad said on his YouTube channel.

“I remember that Chandrasekhar was troubling Zaheer bhai. He told me ‘Javed please tackle him for me’. I obviously said yes,” he recalled.

Miandad further explained another interesting tale from the game when Zaheer Abbas, who was hitting Bishan Singh Bedi with elan, gave Miandad a chance to free himself after the latter asked him to give him strike. Minadad stated that it was really fun out there.

“Meanwhile from the other end, Zaheer bhai was taking a lot of runs off Bedi sahib, Prasanna. Then I said, ‘Zaheer bhai please allow me to take some runs too, I will also use my feet against them. I’m stuck here. I won’t take a single off the last ball.’ During that time players used to look after each other. If I’m having some troubles then my partner will take control and vice-versa,” Miandad added.

As the series ended, Abbas was the highest run-scorer during that series, scoring 583 runs in five innings at an average close to 200. Miandad scored 357 runs of his own, averaging a colossal 179.