Mohammad Irfan would have been more effective in the Johannesburg Test – Hashim Amla

Impressed by the extra-ordinary height of Mohammad Irfan, Hashim Amla, South Africa’s premier batsman believes that the left-arm fast bowler would have been much more effective in the Johannesburg Test.

The 30-year-old cricketer made his international debut in 2010 during the controversial tour of England but failed to make an impression and was subsequently dropped from the national team. The lanky pacer performed well in domestic cricket in the last couple of seasons and was recalled to the Pakistan side for the recent tour of India, where he made a massive impression.

As a result, Irfan was selected in the Test team for the tour of South Africa but could not break into the playing eleven of the first Test at Johannesburg as the team management did not feel he was ready for the longer format of the game.

However, the cricketer from Gaggu Mandi was handed over the Test cap in the Cape Town Test, where he picked up three wickets in the first innings but could not help his team avoid defeat.

Amla feels that the pitch at Johannesburg offered a lot more bounce and pace to the fast bowlers and Irfan would have troubled the home team because of his extra-ordinary height.

He expressed, “If he had played in Wanderers – where there was a lot of bounce – he would have been effective. If it has a bit of pace and bounce in the wickets all the seamers will come into it a bit more.”

The top-order batsman is still impressed by Irfan’s ability to extract maximum bounce from the pitch. Amla thinks that the South African batsmen are used to play against tall fast bowlers as they regularly face Morne Morkel in the nets. However, Amla thinks that Irfan still needs to improve on certain aspects of his game.

“I think he bowled quite well. It’s not often you face someone that tall – he got quite a bit of bounce. Fortunately we face Morne regularly in the nets so we have an inkling of what it’s like,” the great batsman added. “Test cricket is quite a different domain so coming back in your 3rd and 4th spell is a bit of challenge.”

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Feb 20 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.