Mohammad Abbas doesn’t fit the template of pacers as we know them. He has an air of meekness about him that is hardly a pacer quality. He doesn’t bowl with searing pace, mere knowledge of which makes living difficult for batters. But despite that, he has managed to keep his spot in Pakistan’s team, who find themselves once again on the lookout for a better batch of pacers.
Abbas wasn’t supposed to outlive more exuberant Pakistan pacers
Among the fast bowlers in Pakistan’s squad for the three-game series against England, Abbas is the only pacer to be part of the team on their previous tour of the country. He was more of an outsider back then, compared to now, in an exuberant Pakistan pace attack that included young Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah.
Both pacers were touted to stay on in the team long after Abbas would have become a distant memory, probably playing a county game here and there.
Funnily, the opposite happened. And it was bound to happen, especially in a series in England. Abbas has more experience of playing in English conditions than any other current Pakistan pacer. He featured for Leicestershire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, taking 302 wickets at 20.64.
Abbas in county cricket
The coaches that saw him up close think his lack of pace against Abbas is farcical to say the least. Nottinghamshire’s Peter Moores certainly shares the view.
“He’s got really long fingers,” says Moores. “His gift is in his wrist and in his right hand, really, that ability to control how the seam comes out and the slight variations on the ball.”
“But what he has done is he gets people out and that’s the job,” says Moores. “It’s like batters who aren’t as easy on the eye but score runs. And those players are so valuable. You’ve just got to make sure you treat them with the respect they deserve because his record tells you he gets wickets and he never lets you down.”
And Moores isn’t the only one to be impressed with how Abbas does what he does. Derbyshire’s Mickey Arthur, who has also coached Pakistan, says even in the absence of pace, Abbas has enough in his arsenal to get his job done pretty effectively.
“He’s almost like a surgeon in the way he works with that seam. He can get it nipping in, nipping out. And he bowls a really good wobble ball as well, so he’s got it all.”
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