Mohammad Asif begins to bowl after injury
In what has been a resoundingly bad week for Pakistan, the merest sliver of hope has emerged with the news that Mohammad Asif has started bowling again
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Asif returned to Pakistan from England before the start of the first Test at Lord's with an elbow injury and had his first session of bowling yesterday, emerging from it with no ill-effects. However, whether or not he makes it back in time for the fourth and final Test at The Oval beginning on August 17 is still uncertain.
"I had a little spell of bowling yesterday and it went well," Asif told Cricinfo. "There was no pain in the elbow." He will now have another session today and tomorrow before taking part in a practice match at the National Academy in Lahore on Thursday. Only after that will there be a final fitness test to decide on whether he can take any part at all in the final Test.
"I am desperate to start playing for Pakistan again and if I had my way I would start immediately. But it depends on what the doctors advise me to do and the third Test is obviously out of the question. I want to be fit for the final Test though," he added.
In Asif's absence - and that of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Akhtar - Pakistan's bowling attack has struggled in England. In three innings, they have failed to bowl England out, coming closest at Old Trafford where England declared with nine wickets down.
Expectations from Asif in particular before the series began were high; not only had he been Pakistan's most successful bowler over the last three Tests (24 wickets in three Tests, including a match-winning 11-wicket haul in Kandy), but his bounce, accuracy and ability to extract seam movement seemingly at will was expected to play a crucial role on English wickets. Over the last year, he has been, according to Bob Woolmer, the most improved bowler in Pakistan. That assessment has been borne out by results from his last three Tests, a far cry from the muted and unremarkable Test debut he made against Australia in January 2005.
Though Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul have bowled well in patches, the attack has visibly lacked the cut and thrust that has served them so well over the last six months. This has exacerbated the pressure on Asif to return, a development he seems acutely aware of.
"Already there is a lot of pressure on me to return and I am very aware of it," he mused. "I am really keen to come back for the fourth Test but that depends on how the next few days go. It has been really frustrating to sit here and watch the series and not be able to do anything about it."
While Naved-ul-Hasan has been ruled out of the entire Test series, Pakistan retain hope that the final Test will see the return of both Asif and Shoaib. The latter has also resumed bowling and is currently in England with the team continuing his rehabilitation. With the Headingley Test beginning from Friday, and Pakistan still struggling with batting and bowling openers, whether or not Pakistan's unbeaten record in England (they haven't lost a series there since 1982) remains intact by the time both return for the final Test is another question altogether.
Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo
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