Cricket

Waqar Younis raises concerns about Pakistan’s pace bowling depth for Aus vs Pak 2023-24 series

Aus vs Pak 2023-24 - Waqar Younis questions where Pakistan's pace bowling depth has gone

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Waqar Younis has expressed his concern about the lack of pace in Pakistan’s Test attack as they try to bounce back in their Test series against Australia.

Pakistan suffered a heavy defeat, getting bowled out for 89 in their second innings, and to make matters worse, they have lost Shahzad to a rib injury, ruling him out of the series. This will force a change in the team lineup for the MCG match, with Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr, or Mir Hamza being considered as replacements. However, Waqar Younis remains skeptical about the situation.

“Another thing that I’m worried about is that whenever we come to Australia, the thing that excites us the most is fast bowling, and this time around I’m not seeing that,” he said on ESPN’s Around The Wicket show. “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 [kph], and that’s what I’m not seeing there.

“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.”

Naseem Shah, who was also ruled out of the World Cup with injury, was a big loss while Haris Rauf opted to play the BBL for Melbourne Stars instead of the Test series. Pakistan will need much more from Afridi, who claimed 2 for 172 in Perth, if they are to challenge Australia but Waqar had particular concerns about his loss of pace.

“I’m not really sure what’s wrong with him,” he said. “If he’s not fit, if he’s got some issues, he needs to go away from the game and fix that because if you are going to carry on like that you are going to become a medium-pacer. He used to bowl 145-150kph and used to swing that ball. What I’m seeing now, yes there’s a little bit of swing but his pace is way down… and that is not going to get him wickets.

“Watching the first Test match was painful. We had moments, we had opportunities where we could have pulled the game back a bit but we didn’t take the opportunities. When Pakistan come to Australia they have to make sure their fielding is spotless… because Australia batsmen, if you give them opportunities, they’ll take it with both hands and make it big and that’s what we saw in Perth.”

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