It has been proved beyond doubt that England has a world class bowling attack at present. We have seen the strongest bowling attack of England against the West Indies. Now it will be there for us to see in the current series against Pakistan. The pacer Jofra Archer has infused fresh energy and edge in the fast bowling line-up in English team.
You can understand the strength of a team whose two bowlers have together taken over 1000 wickets. Stuart Broad and James Anderson have tremendous bowling skill. Why I am more impressed with Anderson is that he displays high level of energy and enthusiasm despite growing age. At the same time, Broad joined one of cricket’s most exclusive clubs by taking his 500th Test wicket in the series against West Indies and proved that he is emerging stronger and more skillful with the passage of time.
At present, India, England and Australia are the teams which have superb and powerful bowling line-up. Any single bowler of these teams has capacity to take the team to victory on his own. It is not fair to assess any bowler on the basis of his performance in One Day and T-20 matches. In these formats, bowlers have to throw balls cleverly with improvisation. While in the Test matches only we can check the real ability and mental strength of a bowler. This is because bowlers have to deliver several spells in a single day only in Test matches. It is quite possible that one spell is good and other spells are not on good line and length. A bowler can be brought into attack to break a partnership which has reached 150 runs. In such a situation, the bowling strategy will have to be absolutely different. Apart from Anderson, Broad and Jofra Archer, England showcase fast bowlers like Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Mark Wood whom the team put into attack at the right time. England have tremendous bench strength of fast bowlers. Even sometimes Broad is sometimes sent out of the Team for one Test. England lost the match after Broad was kept out. The loss and profit of keeping a player out can be known only after the match result. England’s come-back in the remaining two matches of the series against West Indies was a good spectacle.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, the team has fast bowlers like Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Sohail Khan. Shaheen and Naseem are the new and extremely young players. All they are quite talented players.
Pakistan team management has expressed faith in Shaheen, Naseem and Abbas for Old Trafford. They have done spellbinding bowling and impressed the management a lot. The talent can be noticed at the very start of the career. The need of the hour is to translate that talent into good performance. Fast bowling has been given importance in Pakistan. When I had bowled out five Pakistan players in the Sialkot Test, the team had tremendous talent even then. What was quite encouraging in Pakistan was that whenever any new pacer joined the team the established senior bowlers used to encourage and help him. Imran Khan promoted and helped Wasim Akram and then Waqar Yunis. Similarly, Aqib Javed also got help from Akram. The problem today is that there are no fast bowlers in Pakistan like Imran, Akram, Waqar or Aqib Javed. If there were bowlers of their level it would be quite helpful and beneficial for Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. With this in view, it is challenging for Pakistan to maintain the pace bowling attack like before. However, what makes me happy is that Waqar Yunis is bowling coach of Pakistan. He has been given the responsibility to ensure that Pakistan pace bowling attack does not lose its sheen. Definitely, we will be able to see good result in future.
The writer is a former Indian fast bowler.