Wazir Ali

Syed Wazir Ali (15 September 1903, Jullundur, Punjab – 17 June 1950, Karachi) was a prominent figure in early Indian cricket. He was a right-handed batsman and a medium pace bowler.

Early life

Wazir played in all the Tests that India played before the second world war. In the tour of England in 1932, he scored 1229 runs in first class matches and 1725 overall. In the next tour in 1936 he was hampered by a hand injury but recorded his highest score of 42 in the Test at Manchester.

First class cricket

For most of his first class career he played for Southern Punjab in the Ranji Trophy and Muslims in the Bombay Pentangular. His unbeaten 222 in the 1938/39 Ranji final against Bengal was then the highest in the tournament. Bengal had earlier been all out for 222, but Southern Punjab still ended up in the losing side. His career best score of 268 not out for Indian University Occasionals in 1935 was the highest score in Indian first class cricket. Both records were beaten by Vijay Hazare's undefeated 316 in 1939/40.

As a cricketing figure, Wazir Ali was second only to C.K. Nayudu among his contemporary Indian cricketers but he apparently resented it having to play second fiddle to Nayudu Mihir Bose contrasted the two: "To an extent Nayudu and Wazir Ali were natural rivals. Wazir, like Nayudu, was a powerful right-hand bat who could...
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