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As Pakistan looks to claw their way back into their
Test series against Australia, Waqar Younis has expressed his concern over the
absence of pace in Pakistan’s attack.
Pakistan’s fast bowlers, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Khurram
Shahzad, Aamer Jamal, and Faheem Ashraf, did not often surpass 140 km/h during
the first Test in Perth. However, they did cause some discomfort for the
Australian batsmen during the second innings when fissures in the Optus Stadium
surface appeared.
Pakistan lost their opening wicket-taker Shahzad to a
series-ending rib injury, adding to their misery as they were thrashed by 360
runs and bowled out for 89 in their second innings. Waqar is still not
persuaded, even if it will entail an enforced change at the MCG with either
Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr., or Mir Hamza joining the attack.
“Another thing that I’m worried about is that
always when we come to Australia, one thing that excites is the fast bowling
and this time around I’m not seeing that,” he said on ESPN’s Around The
Wicket show. “I’m seeing medium-pacers or slow-medium-pacers, allrounders,
there’s no real pace. People used to come and watch Pakistan pace bowlers
really running in hard and bowling 150 clicks [kph], and that’s what I’m not
seeing there.
“That’s my worry and issue because I have not
seen it at the domestic level also. There are a few injured, I can understand,
but in the past you would always see a battery of fast bowlers that they could
always bring on, but unfortunately that is not there and I’m really worried
about that.”
Haris Rauf chose to play in the BBL for Melbourne
Stars rather than the Test series, while Naseem Shah was a major loss as well.
Shah was also ruled out of the World Cup due to injury. If Pakistan wants to
beat Australia, they will need a lot more from Afridi, who finished with 2 for
172 in Perth, but Waqar was especially worried about his lack of pace.
“I’m not really sure what’s wrong with him,”
he said. “If he’s not fit, if he’s got some issues, he needs to go away
from the game and fix that because if you are going to carry on like that you
are going to become a medium-pacer. He used to bowl 145-150kph and used to
swing that ball. What I’m seeing now, yes there’s a little bit of swing but his
pace is way down… and that is not going to get him wickets.
“Watching the first Test match was painful. We
had moments, we had opportunities where we could have pulled the game back a
bit but we didn’t take the opportunities. When Pakistan come to Australia they
have to make sure their fielding is spotless… because Australia batsmen, if you
give them opportunities, they’ll take it with both hands and make it big and
that’s what we saw in Perth.”