Amir's swinging fortunes

We have made a litany of excuses, mostly to ourselves, for why Mohammad Amir hasn't come back and taken a wicket with every delivery he has bowled. Excuses for why his pace has been down, why he doesn't bowl six yorkers an over, and why he doesn't swing the ball into and away from batsmen at will. Past memories don't help play down expectations either. After all, banana-swinging balls ripping through Australia and England aren't entirely representative of Amir's oeuvre pre-2010, but that is all that sticks in the mind.

Initially, we thought we needed to wait for him to play Test cricket. That would mark his real comeback, as even he himself called it ahead of the four-match Test series against England last year. After that tour, we believed he had either been unlucky or the problem was the lack of support on the field: too many catches - 12, to be precise - had been dropped off his bowling. Then came the tour of New Zealand, where the pitches are so green that they were barely distinguishable from the outfield. Perfect for Amir, we decided.

Seven wickets in four innings and a whitewash of Pakistan later, we quickly moved on to Australia. The bounce here would be ideal for an express fast bowler like Amir. Watch that ball rear off the surface at the Gabba, wait for the superstar to silence cricket's biggest crowd on Boxing Day, Amir can match up to anything Mitchell Starc can do, and so on…

Amir went wicketless at the MCG and the SCG. Starc took 14 wickets in the series. So, clearly, there wasn't a conspiracy against quality left-arm fast bowlers either. Pakistan were whitewashed, again. We still had moments to cling to, and this vague idea that if those magical moments could happen every ball, every spell and every match, Amir would be the sort of bowler on the field as he was in our fantasies. Remember the first over against India in an Asia Cup T20 game, when he bowled so majestically we believed, however fleetingly, he could defend 83 against arguably the best batting line-up in the world?

Amir's most flamboyant performances have come when we least expected them. The series against West Indies was supposed to be one dominated by spin, on surfaces that had long ceased to be conducive to fast bowling. But Amir seemed to find some sort of inspiration there too, as if the legends of Michael Holding and Joel Garner had inspired him to revive a craft that the Caribbean had long ago given up on.

So this Champions Trophy came at a good time for Amir. Or so went the theory. It nearly turned out that way at the very start, too, when he bowled another superb first over to Rohit Sharma that revived memories of how he had toyed with the Indian batsmen in Dhaka a year earlier. But flirting with the outside edge and the off stump can only ever be appetisers, and are always frustrating without the main course. He went wicketless in that match, and the one after that - though again, he was superb in the slog overs against South Africa - and his most memorable contribution against Sri Lanka was his role in a streaky lower-order partnership that helped his side to the semi-final.

So perhaps the only thing that can be derived from Amir's career, especially post-comeback, is that making predictions about him is futile. We tune in to a game in Cardiff hoping to see a glimpse of Amir bowling under overcast skies, and may end up wondering if he can get a few streaky runs under watery sunshine to see his side over the line. It hardly makes sense, and Amir knows that better than anyone.

"I have always believed you need luck in cricket," he said after the win against Sri Lanka. "Thankfully, we had that luck today, and Sarfraz told me after he was dropped that he believed God was on our side, and so I must not make a silly mistake."

Amir recognises he has been unlucky not to get more wickets than he has in this tournament. "I was very frustrated at the start. When you bowl well and don't take wickets, it frustrates you, particularly if you're playing as a senior bowler. But today I bowled well and took two wickets, and that has given me a lot of confidence."

He even had time to fire off a couple of passive-aggressive shots at England. When asked how Pakistan were preparing for a game against the hosts and tournament favourites, he played down any possibility that they were daunted by the challenge. "They're a good side but, then again, teams that reach the semi-finals are all good teams. And when you win a game under pressure, like we have done, it's a huge boost for you."

A week ago, most would have believed that a match against Pakistan wouldn't be England's biggest concern at any stage of the tournament. It might be fair to maintain that even now. After all, England have played far better cricket than Pakistan, who have never won a Champions Trophy semi-final anyway - and there's no sign that might change tomorrow either.

However, Amir knows well that his career may eventually end up being defined by England. It is the place where he found success as a teenager, tearing though oppositions all those years ago, the place where he fell as far as a cricketer could fall, and the place he made his comeback over half a decade later. It may yet be the place where he sucker-punches the hosts just as they look like they are entering a period when they might have the world at their feet.