Grant Flower

Flower batting for Essex against Cambridge UCCE, April 2005

After the World Cup Zimbabwe were promoted to Test status and Flower was unanimously selected to play against the Indians for the Inaugural Test match on 18 October 1992. On a flat pitch, he opened the batting for his country and dominated in a 100 run opening stand. He would go on to score 82, falling short of a century on Test debut.[5] Zimbabwe again met the Indians this time on their home turf and again fell just short of a maiden Test century when he fell for 96.

Pakistan toured Zimbabwe in 1995 and in the 1st Test Flower finally scored his maiden Test century. Not content, he went on to register double hundred. He hit only 12 boundaries and faced 523 balls as Zimbabwe scored a massive 4/544 declared. His innings would help Zimbabwe to win their first Test match as they won by a convincing Innings and 64 Runs. He would continue to haunt the Pakistani side, scoring his second Test century at Sheikhupura Stadium in Pakistan.

In 1997 Flower became the first Zimbabwean to score a century in both innings of a Test match. Playing against New Zealand in Harare, he scored 104 and 151. A year later he scored his 5th Test century, an innings of 156 not out at Queens Sports Club against Pakistan. He would suffer a form slump after that innings, not scoring a 99 for 33 innings including 6 ducks. On 25 November 2000 he ended his slump with a fine 106 against India and would go on to score 4 50's in his next 6 innings.

Flower (on the right) with Essex teammate Will Jefferson.

By the end of his ODI career, Flower had taken more wickets than any other Zimbabwean bowler except Heath Streak. His ODI statistics make better reading than his Test statistics. He would score 6 ODI tons and had it not been for the nervous nineties may have had many more. 9 times he was either unbeaten or dismissed in the 90's. One of his most memorable centuries would come in the final of a one-day triangular tournament in Bangladesh. Playing against Kenya he smashed an 82 ball century and finished with 140, just 2 short of the national record at the time. He holds the record for taking the most catches as fielder for Zimbabwe in ODI history(86)[6]

Flower more importantly was the first batsman to carry his bat right through the completed innings of an ODI.[7] He also holds the unique record for being the only batsman in ODI cricket to have carried his bat in a One Day International match in a winning cause.[8][9]

In 2004 he announced his retirement from international cricket. This was due largely to the dispute between the rebels and the Zimbabwean Cricket Union. He signed a contract with Essex as a Kolpak player where he played alongside his brother Andy. There was some grumbling amongst Essex supporters at his signing, but this appeared to die down after his first season, when he topped the Essex 2005 List-A batting averages and was third in the number of wickets taken.

Following another fine season for Essex which turned out to be his last season of county cricket, Flower was handed a shock recall to the Zimbabwe team for the tour of South Africa. He was expected to combine playing duties with his role of batting coach of the national side and was in contention to play in the 2011 Cricket World Cup held in India.[10][11] He made his international return in October 2010 during the first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa.[12]