Imran Khan gives his verdict on the Pakistan series (9 Sep 1996)

Mushtaq turns in the decisive performance as Cork fails to pop

Imran Khan gives his verdict on the Pakistan series, Bowlers pose problem for England selectors

IT WAS a pity that the England-Pakistan series was not a five Test one. The cricket played was of a much higher quality than witnessed during the first half of the summer. Above all, it was a series played in the spirit of the game and without any controversies - unlike the previous ones.

In the Test series England were outclassed by Pakistan. The department where England are vulnerable is their bowling. The worrying thing for England is that even when their bowlers were presented with a wicket at Headingley which was ideally suited to medium-pace seam bowling (traditionally England`s strength), they could not utilise the conditions. Needless to say, on good wickets it became apparent that there was no way the English bowling attack could bowl out a decent Test batting line-up twice.

In the first Test at Edgbaston against India, it seemed that Dominic Cork would develop into the strike bowler that England need desperately. As the summer progressed Cork rarely looked threatening - most of the time giving the impression that he was jaded and that his bark was worse than his bite. He certainly has not progressed as I felt he would. I hope he does not end up becoming another Chris Old - a bowler who started off as a genuine fast bowler and within a few seasons ended up bowling medium pace. Cork should have been the bowler around whom the English attack revolved - yet it was the debutant, Alan Mullally, who looked more like getting a breakthrough.

Mullally and Darren Gough are the two bowlers who have the potential to become match-winners but the bowling find of the summer for England was Robert Croft. After a long time I have seen a quality English spinner. It is rare to see an attacking spinner in English cricket because of the abundance of one-day matches. He will be a real asset on overseas tours.

The area for optimism is the English batting. Atherton, Stewart, Thorpe, Hussain, Knight and Crawley is a good batting line-up in world cricket at present and in future a potentially formidable one.

Pakistan looked a well-knitted team - a quality they have lacked since 1992. Wasim Akram needs to be congratulated for making his talented cricketers play as a team again. He also played positive and attacking cricket for most of the series. He was also not scared to risk playing inexperienced players like Shadab Kabir, Mohammad Akram and Shahid Nazir.

However, watching Waqar Younis and Wasim bowl in the series it became apparent that both had lost a bit of their fire compared with their performances when they last toured England in 1992. Four years ago, the two of them did not need any help from anyone in running through the English batting line-up. This time had it not been for Mushtaq Ahmed, I wonder if Pakistan would have been able to bowl out England twice. Wasim certainly looks as if he has lost some pace. There were certain spells when he looked deadly but most of the time he bowled just above medium pace.

WAQAR made a successful comeback to form and fitness. He had been struggling with both last winter. His greatest strength is his ability to fight back - his mental strength. He has already overcome two stress fractures in his back through sheer determination. He is one of the few bowlers I know who can be absolutely destroyed in one spell, but returns in the next one with both barrels blazing.

But the bowler who won Pakistan the series - Mushtaq Ahmed - has my greatest admiration. A year ago, he was dropped from the team, having lost rhythm and confidence. He had developed a tendency to fall away at the point of delivery, but he bowled for hours at one stump until he got rid of the flaw. That hard work paid off and he came back a better bowler. At the moment, along with Shane Warne, he is the world`s most attacking spinner.

The other great success story is of Ijaz Ahmed. He made his Test debut almost nine years ago and has shown great potential but his technique was always faulty. He had problems with his stance - his left shoulder would be pointing at mid-off when the bowler was about to bowl. He got dropped from the team on various occasions and a couple of years back it looked as if his career was over.

In the past year, however, he has gone from strength to strength. Apart from being consistent he has given the Pakistan batting line-up solidity by successfully occupying the crucial number three spot.

Elsewhere in the batting, Saeed Anwar raised his international standing during the series. He, along with Zaheer Abbas, is the best timer of the ball ever produced by Pakistan.

Pakistan cricket is fortunate that it has two wicketkeepers - both of whom can bat. Moin Khan is fitter and more nimble on his feet than Rashid Latif. Rashid, on the other hand, has safer keeping hands and a better batting technique than Moin.

I started my Test career batting at number eight and had a poor average. It was only when I moved up the order that I was able to develop my batting. If I were Pakistan`s captain now, I would bat Rashid at six and have the luxury of playing five specialist bowlers.

Finally, the umpiring throughout the summer was quite poor. The ICC should start thinking of allowing umpires to get help from TV replays when dealing with bat and pad catches. Moreover, why not have two neutral umpires? In no other sport do they have one neutral umpire and one home one.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph