Any description of Mark Taylor’s appointment as Australia’s Test captain cannot avoid mentioning that it was unfortunate for some records that this began during the tour of Pakistan in 1994.
In the first Test match of the series played in Karachi, Taylor became the first Test captain to have a pair (scoring naught in both innings) in his first match as a captaining player.
Such an aberration highlighted the challenges of coming at the bowlers, particularly with the subcontinent pitches which had been viscous for foreign batsmen in the past.
Karachi being one of the toughest cities to play cricket was a very sad and a rude welcome for the newly appointed Australian captain.
In the first innings Taylor was no more than a victim of the king of swings Wasim Akram then in the second innings after some waqar yonis, it was again akram who sent him back for a duck.
As bad as it was to do so, this losing streak in Pakistan in the beginning of Taylor’s Test career did not last long. In fact Pakistan would be one of the happiest hunting grounds for him later on.
Four years later in the 1998 series Taylor was back to the subcontinent not as a fresh captain but as a well experienced and accomplished batsman.
In this peace, during the second Test and further, in Peshawar, Taylor played perhaps one of the best innings ever in Australian cricket when he scored tummy! Out in a wretched 334.
With this innings, he equaled Sir Don Bradman’s then-Australian Test record for the highest individual score.
Nowhere in a very impressive display of sporting integrity and humility did Taylor bat on after declaring the innings giving opportunity to surpass Brian Lara’s record of 375.
