Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen revealed that Pakistan’s right-arm pacer Mohammad Asif was the best bowler he has ever faced in his international career.
The 36-yr-old, tall right-hand batsman said Asif’s uncanny ability to extract seam off the pitch placed him “a country mile” ahead of Australian legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, and Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan.
“The best bowler I faced was Mohammad Asif, the bowler from Pakistan who got done for [spot]-fixing,” Pietersen told Howie Games podcast. “[It was] probably not a bad thing because he tormented a lot of batters.”
And why did Pietersen term him as a ‘tormentor’?
Just his ability to make a batsman feel like the ball was accelerating off the wicket in different directions.”
The 104-Test veteran for England said that Asif would get into a batsman’s mind and destroy whatever form he was in.
“If I was in good form, he made sure I wasn’t in good form a couple of weeks later after playing him. If I wasn’t in good form, I knew I wasn’t in good form after playing him for a couple of weeks during a series,” he explained.
Asif, when picked for the fourth Test against England in 2006, dismissed Pietersen on the very first ball that he ever bowled to him. He made him edge one to the then wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal. Asif later accounted for Pietersen on four more occasions.
The 34-year-old paceman, before being convicted for spot-fixing in 2010, bagged 106 wickets for Pakistan in 23 Tests. He also played 38 ODIs for Pakistan and accounted for 46 batsmen.