How did Babar Azam ruin Pakistan's fast-bowling culture? Former cricketer explains

Pakistan have a history of producing legendary fast bowlers. Their former captain Imran Khan is one of them, while his bowling partners, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, formed a deadly trio. Later in the years, Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir were forces to reckon with. Umar Gul and Asif were sheer quality too.

When Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah arrived, they looked to be carrying the legendary legacy, but a few years later, they looked extremely ordinary. Naseem is even out of the scheme of things. Reflecting upon that, former cricketer Urooj Mumtaz blamed

during his earlier stint and that eventually contributed to the decline of the country’s fast-bowling attack.

Mumtaz said Pakistan’s traditional strength in fast bowling should not have been overlooked, despite the lack of a sustained pace threat in recent years.

“There’s obviously a problem with the pitches that we prepare back home. One of the examples of that was England touring Pakistan both times around,” Mumtaz told Sky Sports.

“Now, I think there’s also a lot of haze in understanding where Pakistan’s strength lies now, or has been in the last five years. For me, it is very hard to believe to say that Pakistan’s quick bowling is not the strength. It has always been the strength,” she said.

She specifically pointed to the conditions prepared during Babar’s captaincy, saying batters’ preference for flatter pitches affected both international and first-class cricket. According to Mumtaz, grass was removed from first-class surfaces, reducing the assistance available to quicks.

“We’ve gone so far away from it because our batters, especially when Babar was captain, wanted flatter tracks, wanted the batsmen to dominate the way things ran more. Even in first-class cricket, grass was taken off. So, you were almost putting the fast bowlers up against the wall, giving them zero assistance in first-class cricket, and providing a lot of batters to score runs without any test, really. And that’s where I feel they’ve just fallen off the boil,” she said.

Mumtaz also assessed Pakistan’s current pace options, saying Shaheen’s progress was affected by injury, Naseem Shah is absent and Haris Rauf has not been able to maintain his pace for long periods.

“Shaheen Shah Afridi broke onto the scene; everyone thought he was the next best thing. After the injury, he fell off. Naseem Shah is nowhere to be found. Haris Rauf is not bowling as quickly, or doesn’t have the capacity to bowl as quickly for long periods of time. There are a few bowlers – Ali Raza, 17 years old – but they’re few and far between in terms of pace. And I think it has to do with what we’ve done at the international and domestic level, providing zero assistance to quick bowlers, moving away from that, and going a lot into all-rounders,” she added.