Birthday special: Grant Flower – One of the finest Zimbabwean cricketers

One of the few cricketing greats from Zimbabwe, Grant William Flower celebrates his 51st birthday today. Flower is rated among the top cricketers from his nation in the history of cricket. His left-arm spin and fine batting skills pushed him to mark his name on the golden pages in his cricketing career. A fitness freak back in his times, Flower used to exert hours in the gyms.

All his efforts were visible clearly on the field as he fielded like a superman in the gully. The combination of Grant Flower along with brother Andy Flower was referred to as ‘Flower Power,’ which remained the very basis of the Zimbabwean team for a decade. He is celebrated as the team’s most successful opener ever who donned the role of anchorman and dominated the game with finesse.

Career highlights

During Zimbabwe’s historic Test win against Pakistan, Flower led his team like a king. During the entire course of his career, he showed his class against the Pakistan team. He averaged over 40 against the men in green and smashed three centuries against them, including a scintillating unbeaten knock of 201 runs. Back in July 2014, he was appointed as Pakistan’s batting coach for a span of two years.

If you fell in love with the elegance of sublime batting in the 90s, he was truly responsible for this. ❤

An artist with one of the most pleasing cover drives + his brilliant left arm spin & amazing fielding.

Scored 201* as his maiden Test ?#HappyBirthday @grantflower_bat pic.twitter.com/eP1aeZw87S

— North Stand Gang – Wankhede (@NorthStandGang) December 20, 2020

He became the first batsman who remained unbeaten across two different formats on numerous occasions. He is also the only batter to have carried his bat both in limited-overs and the longest format of the game. In 1997, Flower became the first man from his nation to smash a ton in both the innings of the Test match against New Zealand. The all-round star of Zimbabwe, Flower had the highest wickets in his bag except for Heath Streak by the end of his ODI career.

In 2004, he marked his retirement from the international circuit owing to a dispute between rebels and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. He stood upright with his team on 67 Tests and 221 ODIs, scoring 3457 and 6751 runs, respectively.  He had 104 ODI scalps to his credit too. After serving with his expertise for the Pakistan cricket team as a coach, he is currently the batting coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team.