Naa doosra na teesra seedhe chautha (dropped)’’The old joke has come a full circle and slammed Saqlain Mushtaq where it hurts most. But the wily old hand accepts the turnaround his career has taken in good spirit: ‘‘Bol lo, bol lo, it is your time to talk. If I start getting wickets, no one will talk about all this,’’ he says.The joke started with Saqlain’s supposed invention of a ‘Teesra’ with which he had vowed to bamboozle the Indians. Nothing of the sort happened and today the Lahore-based offie — the original inventor of the Doosra — was dropped from the team and is now at his drawing board in London. Preparing for one more season with English county Surrey, Saqi says, ‘‘I know I deserved to be dropped. My performance was just not good enough. I accept that I have just not been in form.’’But this has been true for some time now and Saqlain looks half the bowler he was a few years back. In fact when Pakistan toured India in 1999, Saqlain had picked up four consecutive five-wicket hauls in the Test series. Was also a time when Saqlain was almost as deadly a threat to batsmen as Muralitharan was. Experts believe that one of the main reasons for his fall from grace has been the fabled ‘Doosra’.The theory suggests that after the Doosra was adopted by all and sundry, and batsmen learnt to counter it, Saqlain’s bite vanished. But the bowler himself does not agree with it: ‘‘Wasim and Waqar were successful because of their reverse swinging yorkers. Warne is successful because of his flipper and Murali is known for his famous spin. That’s no theory.’’Saqlain instead suggests that it’s all a matter of form and it’s only a matter of time before things fall back in place. ‘‘You cannot perform in every match. I believe I need at least one or two series to come back strongly.’’But that hardly looks like happening. Especially because Saqlain was the only bowler dropped after the Multan Mauling. He has been in and out of the Pakistan Test and ODI squad for the last two years and his selection for the Multan Test was widely believed to be because of his past performances against India. And it doesn’t seem like the team management has the required confidence in the fading star.Saqlain is aware of the situation and is steeling to face it. ‘‘I will treat every match as my last game and as a chance I need to grab with both hands,’’ he says. But won’t that create pressure? ‘‘There is pressure on everybody. Sachin today is the number one. Isn’t there pressure on him as well? But right now everybody is expecting more from the others (read Danish Kaneria) and that will make it easy for me.’’He treats the time away from the sun as a ‘‘learning period’’ he has been ‘‘glad to go through’’ you get back to facing the offie in a mellow mood. The cue to drop the ‘Teesra’ hint again: ‘‘Bas yaar woh batsman ki aankh mein mirch daalta hai,’’ he says, and as he takes on the effect of his humour, Saqlain comes again: ‘‘ I tell you, when it does come through, there will be people all over. Some may even garland me for my performance.’’
