Before the start of the two-match Test series against England, Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas was not exactly hogging the limelight.
Established names like Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali and even young leggie Shadab Khan grabbed the headlines as Pakistan entered the series with hardly any experience but a lot of belief and preparation.
However, it is Abbas who has turned out to be the surprise package. Bowling at just about fast medium pace, Abbas has relied completely on seam, line and length to pick up four wickets in the first innings at Lord’s to go with his nine-wicket haul against Ireland in the Dublin Test.
Although it just the sixth Test for the 28-year-old and second in English conditions, Abbas is already being compared to another enigmatic Pakistan seamer – Mohammad Asif.
Asif too relied on movement off the pitch and in the air to become one of the most effective quicks in the world before his cricketing journey came to a halt after the 2010 spot-fixing scandal.
Most wickets for Pakistan in first 7 Tests:
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) May 26, 2018
37 Mohammad Abbas
37 Mohammad Asif
37 Yasir Shah
34 Abdur Rehman
33 Shabbir Ahmed
Abbas has 9 more wickets to play with. #EngvPak
With Pakistan fans searching for the next Asif who can bring the art of swing and late movement back into fashion, Abbas’ rise has raised many hopes.
Here are three reasons why those comparisons are not too far off.
LESS PACE, MORE SKILL
Abbas is not even the second quickest pacer in the squad. His strength is subtle movement generated off the pitch using a slightly scrambled seam. Reminds you of Asif, doesn’t it?
Asif too was slower than his then team-mates like Shoaib Akhtar, Rana Naved and Mohammed Sami. But Asif was the one bowler who could get something out of the pitch when others couldn’t. And on helpful wickets, he was deadly. Pakistan fans will be hoping Abbas can turn into the next Asif.
CALCULATED ACTION
Both Abbas and Asif don’t have what you would call a classical Pakistani pace bowling action, which has a lot more oomph to it.
Both Abbas and Asif amble into the crease rather than storm their way in like an Akhtar. What a measured bowling action does is it allows the bowler to have a repeatable action that can be sustained for longer periods, resulting in longer spells.
SHARP MIND
In case you missed it, here is how Abbas dismissed Cook! pic.twitter.com/5AK0g1zLaF
— Islamabad United (@IsbUnited) May 26, 2018
When you aren’t blessed with extreme pace, you need to be skilled enough to make the ball do exactly what you want. Abbas knows how to do it, just like Asif did. In the second innings of the Lord’s Test, the manner in which Abbas worked over Alastair Cook was a treat for Test cricket aficionados. Exploiting the left-hander’s habit of pressing half forward, Abbas nipped the new-ball back in to have the first-inning half-centurion out lbw. With the wicket not offering anywhere near as much help as it did in the first innings, that dismissal must have given Abbas a lot of satisfaction.
