Gul continues his affair with Lahore

Less lamented than the myriad combinations of opening batsmen Pakistan have toiled with over the last two years has been the many new-ball bowlers they have opened with. Today, Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir became the tenth new pair in their last 23 Tests.

At least for this we can't just blame selectors and team management; injuries, suspensions, fitness, form, drugs all have forced their hands at some stage. So persistent have the curses been that, as with opening batsmen, nobody is sure what Pakistan's ideal new-ball pair is. Any pair from Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Shabbir Ahmed, even Mohammad Sami and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan could be threatening, though currently deriving any combination from the group is unlikely, if not altogether impossible.

Yet as Gul and Nazir showed in sharing eight wickets, instability in bowling personnel has generally been overcome. Of the seven Tests Pakistan have won in two years, four have come with a new-ball pair few would call first-choice; Rana and Abdul Razzaq against Sri Lanka in Karachi, Sami and Razzaq in Bangalore, Shabbir and Rana in Kingston and Asif and Gul in Kandy earlier this year. Usually, though, they manage to get by just fine.

So do Pakistan possess enough depth in their bowling resources to suggest a bright future? Maybe, though the depth is decent, if not glamorous. In Gul, portents are cheery and bright. Fidel Edwards was an unglamorous 50th Test wicket, in only his 12th Test and it completed a third five-wicket haul. His start, as he later admitted was disoriented, but by his final spell, he had relocated his bearings. "My first spell wasn't great especially as there was moisture in the pitch. That should have helped but my rhythm wasn't there."

His poor start continued into the beginning of his third spell, conceding three fours as he returned. But it helps that even in the middle of his most ordinary spells, he can manufacture the sweetest deliveries, a handy trait he used to dismiss an entrenched Brian Lara, a most glamorous 47th victim. Pitching on middle, the ball moved enough to square him up, but not so much as to miss a thin edge. "That was a very good feeling dismissing Lara. This was my first time bowling to him and after getting his wicket, I got a lot of confidence for the remainder of the spell."

The ball wouldn't have been out of place had it been found in that marvelous spell against the Indians two years ago, on this ground. As it turns out, it is a venue he likes. "This is a lucky ground for me. I got my first five-for here against the Indians, I have another five-for in an ODI here and now this. There was moisture in the pitch so that certainly helped later on."

Most of the work he has done since his return says that he intends to make up for the year he lost with a back problem. And the hope is that it stays that way. Without Asif and Shoaib, his load will be a heavy one though Gul isn't letting on. "There isn't any pressure in their absence. I bowled well in England and then the ICC [Champions Trophy] without them and I'm basically just trying to make light of their absences."

The words future and Nazir don't sit together as comfortably for sure. He's 28 now and 11 Tests staggered over ten years is not conclusive evidence of anything. Asif might return next year, Shabbir sooner and where that leaves Nazir is unclear. But he's played three Tests in a row during which he's not done much wrong. When conditions have helped, he's taken wickets and when they haven't, he has offered control.

When Gul struggled with the new ball, Nazir offered both control and threat on a surface batsmen are unlikely to trust fully. He got lucky with Chris Gayle but the scalps of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were entirely of his own making.

He also appears to know what kind of bowling a pitch requires, no doubt gleaned from years of domestic cricket on a variety of surfaces. He rarely strayed in line and length and utilised the moisture with enough refinement to pick off the head of a strong batting line. His spell of three wickets in 12 balls set up the rest of the day. Two contrasting questions thus remained of the latest new-ball pair: what might be, with Gul, and what might have been with Nazir.