Mohammad Asif: “They just judge a fast bowler on the basis of his pace, ignoring that fast bowlers come in many different categories”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Asif has slammed the fast bowling selection policy, saying the national selectors “judge a fast bowler on the basis of his pace”.
Delving deeper into the selectors’ mindset, Asif pointed out they believe “that only a fast bowler with express pace can win you games”.
He added that Pakistan may be producing many seamers, but it is “more quantity than quality”.
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“One of the basic problems we have in our system is that a lot of our selectors, over the years, had very minor and ordinary playing careers,”Asif told ESPNcricinfo. “For them, picking express fast bowlers is the only thing, because they probably struggled to handle really quick bowlers when they were playing, or didn’t play enough to understand the importance of bowlers like me and (Mohammad) Abbas.
“They just judge a fast bowler on the basis of his pace, ignoring that fast bowlers come in many different categories: there are some who bowl really fast and there are some who take wickets. But in Pakistan, the instinct is that only a fast bowler with express pace can win you games. I wouldn’t know for sure but I’d guess that the times we played together, I had more wickets than Shoaib Akhtar [Asif took 15 wickets in the four Tests he played alongside Akhtar, who took eight.]
“You can’t break anyone with pace. Selectors think fast bowlers can blow any team away, but nobody really fears pace as such – or if they do then it is sustained pace. But the longer a batsman spends at the crease, the more that fear goes away. The real fear is of getting out. Phillip Hughes was so unfortunate and tragic because he got hit on the one unprotected spot, but the odds of it happening are very low. Our system remains inclined to looking for fast bowlers, but these days it seems like we’ve had more quantity than quality.”
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