In the game of cricket batting and bowling both play a vital role in any team’s success. In One-day cricket, if bowlers fail to perform on a day, batsmen have the chance to win the game.

But in Test cricket, if bowlers fail to deliver, no team can win a Test. Without taking 20 wickets in a Test success may remain a dream.

Fast bowlers always play a vital role in the success of any cricket team. They are the front-line soldiers. Without the positive role of fast bowlers, a team’s success in any game, especially in ODIs, is too difficult.

Pakistan has an impressive history of producing great fast bowlers. Not a long time ago, Pakistan had the most lethal bowling attack with Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Shoaib Akhtar.

Even after the retirement of these greats, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul helped Pakistan win a number of matches.

These fast bowlers helped Pakistan win many matches even when they had a fragile batting line, not only at home but abroad too.

Not only fast bowlers, Pakistan also produced many match winning spinners like Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Jamal.

But now the Green-shirts don’t have consistently striking bowlers. Occasionally a bowler performs well, but there is no real threat for the opposition. During the Australia series and in the first Test against Sri Lanka it was proved that our bowling is toothless.

Our bowlers neither keep the run rate down nor do they pick up wickets. After performance against Australia, Pakistan cannot be expected to bowl out any strong batting line up twice. Even at home ground against Sri Lanka in the first Test, our bowlers failed to bowl out tourists in more than 100 overs.

Young fast bowlers’ ineffective bowling is a major concern. Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz have left Test cricket. Hassan Ali is injured while Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Imran Khan are not looking as effective as we want them to be. They don’t have early wicket-taking ability in unfavourable conditions.

Former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has said that Amir is an incredibly skilled bowler who wins games for Pakistan. When the ball swings, there’s no better bowler than him.

In the early days of his career, Amir was compared with legend Wasim Akram for his exceptional ability to swing the ball both ways. But the ban for five years for spot-fixing in 2010 badly damaged his career.

Hassan Ali is one of the best fast bowlers in current Pakistani squad. Reverse-swing, slow balls, solid yorkers, and a skiddy bouncer are his potent weapons. He is a ray of hope. He has good line and length but injury has kept him away from international cricket for quite some time.

With his outstanding performance in 2017, Hasan became the number one bowler in ODI cricket. Hasan made his Test debut against West Indies in May 2017. He played his last Test against South Africa in January this year where he claimed three wickets. He played nine Tests, in which he took 31 wickets at an average of 28.90.

In the first phase of his career, Hasan would often have the relative luxury of coming on to bowl with a wicket or two down. Only seven times out of 24 innings did he come on with the opposition opening pair still batting. In those games, he averaged 25.43 but when a wicket or two were down, he had an average of 16. It means Pakistan’s lack of success with the new ball has affected Hasan’s performance.

Yasir Shah is the only experienced spinner in Pakistan for Test matches, but has been ineffective recently. Shadab Khan has the capability to perform well, but he doesn’t get the chance in Test cricket.

Before the Karachi Test against Sri Lanka, Yasir Shah had played 37 matches, taking 207 wickets with an average of over 30. Yasir may be going through a crisis of confidence - his average is over 120 in three overseas Tests this year.

Fitness is one of the hurdles for the performance of Asian bowlers. Many former greats are much fitter than young players.

Years ago, when Dennis Lillee first came to Chennai (India) to train fast bowlers, he started the session by asking youngsters to accompany him on a run around the boundary. After every round, the much younger bowlers kept dropping out, some clutching their stomachs, while Lillee, then nearly 40, ran on and on and on. Very soon he was the last man running.

Appointment of Waqar Younis as bowling coach should improve young fast bowlers performance.

This is a good decision for the simple fact that Waqar was one of the greatest fast-bowlers to ever play the game. He understands fast bowling better than the others.

He must transfer his skills, especially bowling yorkers and reverse swing to the current pacers.

Waqar’s previous coaching stints went down in flames, Pakistan’s fast-bowler Junaid Khan, in an interview with a website, has stated that Waqar failed to inspire players during his last tenure as head coach.

The board and the management should sit together, make plans and assign the task to bowling coach Waqar and regional academies to find bowlers who can share the burden of fast bowling in future.

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