Pakistan cricket team has decided to field their best spinner in the World Cup. There is a growing consensus among the team management and selectors on leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed, who has performed brilliantly in Test cricket. Abrar took 38 wickets in six Tests and performed brilliantly against the batsmen of England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The problem with the Pakistan team is that its leg-spin all-rounder and vice-captain Shadab Khan has completely lost his form in bowling. In South Africa, England, Netherlands, New Zealand and now in the Asia Cup, he proved to be a below average bowler. In fact, his bowling has been getting shorter, overpitched and full-toss. It is said that he is focusing on batting, but his good batting has also not been seen for a long time. In such a situation, why shouldn’t Pakistan field their best spinner in his place, but there is a news that Shadab will also be in the team along with Abrar. The third leg-spinner Usman Mir can be shown the way out, because he also does not know how to bat like our Chahal. Now only one of Abrar and Usman can stay and Abrar’s recent record-breaking achievements put him above all.
Abrar is one of the best leg-spinners in modern-day cricket. He has not played a single ODI yet, but his bowling is impressive. He is known as Pakistan’s mystery spinner. He relies on length balls. He uses full-length balls as a surprise weapon, and he is especially good at dealing with tailenders on such balls. Playing sweep or reverse sweep against him is a big risk. The master of sweep Joe Root, was also out by playing such shot. Not only that, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley, and NZ’s Tom Latham and Daryl Mitchell were also out playing sweep or reverse sweep against him.
Abrar’s stock ball does not turn much, while his googly turns more, with which he has taken the wicket of Ben Stokes. The grip of his leg break and googly is almost the same. The difference is that he uses his back hand for the googly, which usually gives the impression that he is going to bowl a googly. Flight is his other weapon. It is not easy for batsmen to play forward defensive shots against such balls. On such occasions, his fast turning bowls is quite dangerous, in which most of the time the ball goes between the bat and the pad. He has already dismissed Joe Root and Zak Crawley who have scored heavily in the Indian subcontinent, in a similar way. Ben Stokes went to defend on his leg on one of his such balls, but the ball went towards the middle and off stump, causing him to lose his wicket.
Pakistan experimented of bringing in Naseem Shah, the master bowler of Tests, played in ODIs last year and he proved quite successful. In such a situation, there is hope that bringing in Abrar, who looks like Harry Potter, in the World Cup squad could prove to be a masterstroke for Pakistan.