Pakistan have almost always been rich when it comes to spin bowling talent. In the 1980s we had Abdul Qadir, Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed -- three spinners of different categories.

In the second half of 1990s, we had two leg-spinners in Mushtaq Ahmad and Shahid Afridi, a world-class off-spinner in Saqlain Mushtaq, the man who invented Doosra, and Arshad Khan, an economical off-spinner.

The competition increased with the arrival of Danish Kaneria, who eventually ended the career of Mushtaq Ahmad and became the country’s first-choice spinner for Tests.

In ODIs in 2000s, we had Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez who served the country fairly well.

In late 2000s, the country got Abdul Rehman, a very effective left-arm orthodox spinner, and Saeed Ajmal, who replaced Danish Kaneria in 2010 and became the first choice spinner for many years to come.

Keeping all these facts in mind, when we look at the list of successful bowlers in the recently concluded Pakistan Super League, we are amazed to find that there was no young, reliable off-spinner. Neither did any team have a young leg-spinner. There was Usama Mir, who played for Karachi Kings, but his performance was below par. And even if his six wickets from seven matches are accepted as a satisfactory performance, it should be noted that he was the only leg-spinner in the five-team event worth mentioning.

Very interestingly, however, there left-arm spinners all over the League -- Mohammad Nawaz, Imad Wasim, Imran Khalid, Mohammad Asghar, Zafar Gohar, Zulfiqar Babar, Zohaib Khan.

It may sound exaggerated but I must state that apart from Zohaib Khan, all of these left-armers looked capable of playing international cricket. Imad, Zafar and Zulfiqar have already done that and Nawaz is going to do that in a few days. But Asghar and Imran are no less talented.

Imran played a major role in Islamabad’s victory over Peshawar Zalmi although all credit was given to Sharjeel Khan for his blistering century. He blew off the top order, dismissing seasoned campaigners Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Brad Hodge and Darren Sammy. He is 33 years old but I think he deserves a chance to represent Pakistan after this performance.

Similar were the performances of Asghar. The way he bowled Shane Watson was a treat to watch.

So Pakistan are not going to be deficient in left-arm spin bowling for years to come, but the question is: can one variety of spin win us matches consistently at the international level?