Took them to the cleaners: Miandad opens up on India’s 1978-79 tour to Pakistan

Batting great Javed Miandad has recalled how his team dominated Indian spinners during their arch-rivals’ tour of Pakistan in 1978-79.

The Indian spin troika, Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna, were taken to the cleaners by him and legendary batsman Zaheer Abbas during the three-match Test series, which Pakistan won two-nil.

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

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Miandad also revealed how he and Abbas complemented each other, when faced with any difficultly, while batting against the Indian spinners.

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

“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.

Abbas was the highest run-scorer during that series, with 583 runs in five innings at an average close to 200. Meanwhile, Miandad scored 357 runs in similar number of innings at an average of 179.