Pakistani cricket team needs to focus on its pace attack

Pakistani cricket team needs to focus on its pace attack

The Pakistani cricket team is believed to be one of the most formidable forces in the sport due to its strong bowling strength. However, the match against India during the 2012 Asia Cup in Dhaka raised a lot of questions.

For over two decades, it was the pacers who enjoyed the reputation of being the primary weapon of the Pakistani side. Bowlers such as Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar had an intimidating effect on the opposition, making the lowest
of target seem like a huge one due to their aggressive start. Facing the world’s best batsmen, which included the likes of West Indies’ Brian Lara, India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s Ricky Ponting, the Pakistani pace attack quite often than naught took
control of the situation.

However, the last one year has not been the best as far as Pakistan’s pace attack is concerned. Ever since the spot fixing case sidelined Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir, the country has been struggling to find a decent replacement.

While many people are under the impression that Umar Gul is doing a good job of spearheading the opposition right from the word go, they cannot be further away from the truth. Gul is indeed a world class bowler and his skills are undeniable. However, he
is consistently failing to do justice to his true potential. It takes very little effort to put him under pressure, which triggers a series of wayward deliveries.

Gul may be able to perform better if he was getting a decent support from the other end. However, he is forced to team up with bowlers such as Aizaz Cheema, Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz. None of the three bowlers seem to possess the skills and mind that is
expected of a world class bowler. Cheema has surely given a few good performances, but he is pretty inconsistent and not creative at all. Skidding the ball on the pitch may generate a bit of pace, but the sort of opposition that he is up against, pace is not
going to help him a lot in taking wickets.

It is time for Pakistan to bring someone like Muhammad Sami into the team, who may be able to provide a good support to Gul in spearheading the opposition. Sami had put on a phenomenal show during the 2012 Bangladesh Premiere League (BPL) and that should
be enough to convince the Pakistani selectors of adding him to the 15-man squad.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on Mar 20 2012. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry