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Who is Mohammad Asif??

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I got a chance to watch some cricket on Day 3 of Faisalabad test and Pakistan had just taken the second new ball. The rookie seam bowler, Mohammad Asif, in his debut test match, started sending short pitched balls again and again at Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar. He is not a very tall man - about 6 feets but delivers the ball from the best possible height. His main weapon seems to be cutting the ball at seam rather than swinging it..

He bowls at aound 133-135 km/hr, which is not very threatening. When I noticed him on third days play, he didn't had too many expressions on his face as he kept on bowling short balls...probably thats were the orders from his captain and coach. Ultimately Yuvraj Singh hooked, only to be hold out at fine leg by Danish Kaneria and became the first wicket for the yound man from Sheikhupura, Punjab in Pakistan. See his profile.

He looks very similar to Younis Khan, the Pakistani vice captain but in bowling he is very much like Umar Gul. He bowled very similar length on that 2nd India vs Pakistan test at Lahore and got his best figures of 5 for 31, but the pitch was lot more helpful for him than Faisalabad pitch is for Asif.

One last thing - Pakistani has always been known to produce really fast bowlers who had ability to reverse swing the ball. But none of these young "Medium Pacers" seems to have the prized talent. The last seam bowler from Pakistan I saw reverse swing the ball was Rana Naveed-ul-hasan, and of course, Shoaib Akhtar. But of these two, one is struggling with his shoulder injury while other is completely out of sorts.. I can't believe debutants like Rudra Pratap Singh and Mohammad Asif can manage wickets on this Dead Faisalabad pitch but not Shoaib Akhtar. He has got just one wicket in 9 days of cricket - of Sachin Tendulkar, who wasn't really out!!

His main weapon is his swinging yorkers, which doesn't require any pitch support. I know weather is not ideal for reverse swing, nor the pitch and not even the Kokaburra balls they are using as it is loosing its seam very soon, Shoaib is not even trying yorkers. He seems to be concentrating on only boucing out Indian batsmen who are very well prepared for that. I don't know what is wrong with Shoaib and then, I wonder he is not in contact with some OUTSIDE PROFESSIONAL!!





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