With a highest score of 194 against India in 1997 which was not broken for 12 years until Sachin made 200 not out against South Africa in 2009, Anwar was Pakistan most skilled opening batsman who not only played big innings for them but played with good strike rate.
With more than 8000 runs in 247 ODIs with 20 century, Anwar was one of the best opening batsman of his time and highly consistent for Pakistan at the top order.
Hailed as best opening batsman by legendary Shane Warne, Anwar earned his respect by his elegant strokeplay.
Anwar was born in Karachi in 1968, in 1973 he shifted to Canada but came back to Pakistan again in 1977. At 21 years of age, he graduated with a degree in engineering.
His father was a businessman who has played club cricket.
He had plans to go for Master in USA but his cricket career also started and he decided to try his luck in cricket.
He married his cousin Lubna, a doctor by profession in 1996. Soon a year after they have a daughter who they named Bismah but little did Anwar knew she will have a short life.
After a long illness, Bismah died aging only 3 and a half years old. At that time Anwar was playing against Bangladesh.
This death of her daughter in 2001, changed him completely from inside. Before this incident, he used to be clean shaved but after that he decided to devote his life to Islam and he started keeping a beard.
He returned to cricket after a long gap but performed exceedingly well in 2003 World Cup.
He played a superb innings of 101 against India in the 2003 World Cup.
As of now, he is active on twitter and posts few tweets once in a while.
‘
