The Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test series will bring into focus the bowling line-ups of both the teams. Suffice to say, both attacks are depleted, Sri Lanka more so. The Sri Lankans have lost their old war horses, the architects of their numerous triumphs, Murali and Vass, to retirements while the Pakistanis are trying to recover, albeit without much success, from the loss of Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. The spot fixing scandal has left Pakistan with a relatively inexperienced bowling line-up spearheaded by Umar Gul. For most of his career, Gul has played second fiddle to the likes of Akhtar, Asif and Amir but now the spotlight is squarely on him, which begs the question: Is he good enough to lead the Pakistan attack?
The answer to that would be no and I can imagine people reading this thinking ‘but he’s our best bowler’ which he is, but only in the limited overs format. His performances in Tests have not been up to the mark for a while now which is strange because it was in Tests where he made his initial impact. That was followed by a long injury lay off and upon his return, we saw a new Gul; excellent in ODIs, unplayable in T20s but almost Sami-esque in Tests. Inconsistency seems to be his biggest problem. It’s not like he can’t bowl well but more often than not he tends to blow hot and cold, sometimes even in the same match. This pattern is reflective in his career statistics, a Test average of 34.16 as opposed to an ODI average of 27. Between 2006-2010, Gul took 87 wickets in 27 Tests at an average of 39.77 with a strike rate of 68.3 which are hardly awe-inspiring numbers. Admittedly 2011 has been kinder to Gul so far but a closer look reveals that he went wicket less against the West Indies and of the 13 wickets captured against New Zealand, seven were of tail-enders. Gul has modest to poor record against Australia, South Africa and England, all powerhouses of the modern era and if it weren’t for the 15 wickets coming at a strike rate of 47 against the giant that is Bangladesh, Gul’s numbers would have been be far worse. How then someone who is so deadly in the shorter formats be so innocuous in Tests? It is perhaps down to a combination of factors most notably that Gul lacks the temperament to bowl consistently at Test match level. The notion of one-day specialists holds just as true for bowlers as it does for batsmen. In limited overs, the batsmen look to attack which provides opportunities to the bowler to pick up wickets in Tests the bowler have to work just that little bit harder. The batsmen are prepared to bide their time and a bowler is required to show patience and craft to work over batsmen, something which Gul seems to lack. Gul has never been a prodigious swinger of the ball and his best delivery, the yorker, is criminally underused in Tests. All said and done, it is unlikely, Gul will be dropped for Tests because that’s just how it is in Pakistan; Younis Khan keeps getting selected for ODI’s, Afridi keeps getting selected. Assuming that he is dropped, where does that leave Pakistan bowling would be the next logical question. The answer is, in good hands. True it will not be an experienced outfit, but that does not mean it will lack quality. Tanvir Ahmed has been mysteriously dropped despite his 16 wickets in four Tests and let’s not forget he is quite handy with the bat as well. Aizaz Cheema, who shone with the ball on the tour of Zimbabwe, had to wait until the age of 31 before he was called up for the national side despite consistently picking up wickets at domestic level. Why Tanvir is no longer a part of the team, why these two had to wait 31 years before being called up and most importantly, why we had to endure Muhammad Sami all this time, are questions that only selectors can answer though my guess is that it had something to do with Sami’s long and silky locks. It just has to be. Wahab Riaz is another fine prospect that has come by leaps and bounds over the year or so but like Gul, he needs to fine tune his game for Tests. If he can do that he will definitely be an asset. The most exciting prospect, however, has to be Junaid Khan. The 21-year old from KPK has been unlucky in the sense that he does not have a bagful of wickets to show for his good bowling but Wasim Akram certainly rates him, as do Lancashire, where he had a short stint on Akram’s recommendation and performed exceedingly well. Seeing how our last two promising left-arm fast bowlers Amir and Sohail Tanvir ended up, it would not be a bad idea to appoint a full time babysitter for Junaid, just to make sure he doesn’t go astray. To conclude, Gul himself will know or rather should know that his performances in Tests have not been earth shattering and regardless of whether he is dropped (unlikely) or not, he must look to improve his performances. As with Riaz, there is no reason why he can’t do that because the basic ingredients are there. He is certainly hard working enough, humble and controversy-free (always a bonus) but if he wants to be the leader of this attack and wants to go down as one of the greats, he’ll need to make that step up in quality.
