Former wicketkeeper Rashid Khan made a scathing assessment of Pakistan’s shock defeat to Bangladesh in the first of a two-Test series in Rawalpindi, saying the senior national team has run out of bowlers who are prepared for the long grind. Latif, in a strongly-worded column, pointed fingers at the failure of the fast bowlers for their 10-wicket defeat in the series opener on Sunday, August 25.
Rashid Latif, who was an integral member of the more dominant Pakistan Test sides between 1992 and 2003, also questioned why Pakistan fast bowlers lose pace while coming back from injury concerns, blaming “trainers and physios”.
PAK vs BAN, 1st Test: Day 5 Highlights | Full Scorecard
“Our fast bowlers are effective only in white ball cricket. There are no Test match bowlers left in Pakistan. They can’t bowl 30 overs in a Test match. It is not possible to play Test cricket with this kind of bowling,” Latif said in his column for Cricbuzz.
Bangladesh sealed their first-ever win over Pakistan in a Test match on Sunday. Pakistan’s bowling unit failed big time as the tourists posted a mammoth total of 565, sealing a 117-run first-innings lead. Bangladesh, who rode on spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, shot out Pakistan for 146 in the second innings and chased down a meagre target of 30 runs on the final day to script history.
Latif highlighted how fast bowlers across the world, including Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah, managed to regain their maximum pace after returning from injuries and questioned why it had not been the case with Naseen Shah and Shaheen Afridi.
“Our trainers and physios are to blame. If you look at a Jofra Archer, he comes back after two years of hiatus but does not lose a yard in his pace. Same with Jasprit Bumrah — he comes back from an operation and bowls with the same velocity. Pat Cummins… he was out of cricket for a long time due to injury. When he came back, he did not show any signs of slowing down. Why are our bowlers slowing down? Obviously, our support staff is not doing a proper job. A bowler of 144 kph speed has come down to 128 kph,” he added.
Shaheen Afridi has seemingly not been at his best, struggling with recurring injuries. He had spoken about the knee injury that troubled him in the 2022-23 season. Naseem Shah underwent shoulder surgery after missing the ODI World Cup in 2023 and has not been at his best. Pakistan’s breakthrough talent, Aamer Jamal, was ruled out of the ongoing series due to an injury.
READING THE PITCH WRONG
Latif also questioned why the likes of captain Shan Masood and assistant coach Azhar Mahmood were not able to read the Pindi pitch despite having plenty of local knowledge. He defended newly-appointed coach Jason Gillespie even as critics are training the gun toward the support staff for the blunder in assessing the pitch.
Pakistan played an all-pace attack and left out their lead spinner Abrar Ahmed, expecting the pitch to help the fast bowlers. However, the Pindi pitch deteriorated and the Bangladesh spinners extracted the most from it on the final day.
“Jason Gillespie is a good coach. He has got the experience but it is not easy to read pitches in the sub-continental conditions for foreigners. The locals have to do it. Azhar Mahmood (assistant coach) is supposed to be the expert. But he lives in England. Shan Masood and Babar Azam have played in these conditions and they should have known. They thought grass would do the trick for them. It backfired,” Latif said.
Pakistan will look to bounce back and level the series in the second Test, starting August 30.
Source Agencies
