Nasser Hussain is regarded as one of the most successful captains to have ever led England in Test cricket. The leggie-turned-batsman was born in Madras (now Chennai). “Nashwan”, as he is nicknamed, began his cricketing career at Essex in 1987, and a couple of years later received his first call-up to the national side in an ODI against Pakistan. The following year, he made his Test debut in a historic match which was England’s first victory against the West Indies in 16 years, although it was not until 1993 that he cemented his place in the Test arena.
Once he took over the captaincy from Alec Stewart in 1999, the English team was in turmoil. He lost his first series as captain against New Zealand. But after that he started a revival as he became the first England captain since Mike Brearley to win four Test series on the trot. His captaincy style reflected his personality, always full of energy and ideas and never static. Even after receiving a drubbing in the Ashes in 2001 and the following one, not for once was Hussain under the scanner; such was the value of his captaincy.
Whilst batting, Hussain had quite a lot of technical glitches in his style, that included a dominant bottom hand and unorthodox leg and head positions, which led him to lean back in the drive. After years of improving on his stance as well as other technical faults, he finally became a quality Test batsman. He then hung up his boots from all forms of cricket in May 2004. Since his retirement, Hussain has taken up commentary on international cricket matches.
