Waqar Younis laments the lack of pace in Pakistan's bowling vs Australia in the first Test. (AP/File)Former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis rued the lack of speed in the Pakistan pace battery saying that there was no real pace in the team which lost comprehensively to Australia in the 1st Test.
“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. 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, and that’s what I’m not seeing there,” Younis said on ESPN’s Around The Wicket show.
“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,” he added.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, Khurram Shahzad, Aamer Jamal and Faheem Ashraf were leading Pakistan’s pace battery in the Test against Australia and they hardly troubled the Baggy Greens who easily navigated around the pace of Pakistan.
A week ago, even former India captain and coach Ravi Shastri had pointed out the “real problem” for
Afridi as the left-arm pacer failed to impress in the first couple of days of the Perth Test match.
“I think the real problem for Shaheen is the pressure of being the spearhead of this Pakistan attack and without much support at the other end when it comes to pace,” Shastri said during the commentary.
“You don’t have one bowler here who is even close to 140, so that puts immense pressure on someone like Shaheen,” he added.
Pakistan will next play the second Test against Australia starting on Boxing Day i.e. on December 26.
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