Daily Times

LAHORE: Former Pakistan bowler Mohammad Asif has made a rather controversial statement, saying that current crop of bowlers in Pakistan side are much older than what their official ages suggest. The former pacer went on to make this observation over the inability of the bowlers to bowl longer spells. Asif was speaking to wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal on the latter’s Youtube channel. When asked why Pakistan were unable to take 20 wickets and win a Test match like the way previous generation of bowlers did, he said that it was their inability to take 10 wickets in an innings. “I feel it might have been 5-6 years since a fast bowler took 10 wickets in a match. We used to salivate after seeing the pitches like the ones in New Zealand. There was no question of leaving the ball as a fast bowler. I never used to leave the ball before taking a five-wicket haul,” said Asif.

“These kids do not have the knowledge. They don’t know how to keep the batsman on the front foot, not give them a single and how to bowl on the wickets. When they try to bowl on the wickets, it goes down the leg-side. They do not have the control. And they are so aged. It is written as 17-18 years on paper, but they are actually 27-28 years old because they don’t have the flexibility to bowl 20-25 overs. They don’t know how to bend the body; they become stiff. They are not able to stand on the field after bowling a 5-6 over spell,” observed Asif. The current pace battery of Pakistan –– that played in the first Test against New Zealand, consists of the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Abbas.