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Former Pakistan Women's National Team cricketer Urooj Mumtaz blamed Pakistan Men's National Cricket Team's Test captain Babar Azam for the downfall of the nation's fast bowling strength.
Pakistan has a rich history of producing multiple world-class fast bowlers. Now, there is barely anyone who is dominating with pace and swing. Mumtaz observed that to favour the batters, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has stopped preparing pitches to groom the seamers in domestic cricket.
Urooj Mumtaz explains why Pakistan's current pace attack is far from their glory days
Because of a lack of preparation in domestic cricket, there is barely any fiery first bowler playing for the men's national cricket team. Urooj Mumtaz pointed out once that, where pitches are used to prepare with the aim to improve the pace-bowling talents, there are now only flat, batting-friendly tracks where the bowlers get very little room to showcase their class against the batters.
Reflecting on the reality, the former Pakistan cricketer stated that fast bowling is no longer the strength of the national side.
"So there’s obviously a problem with the pitches that we prepare, back home... You were almost putting the fast bowlers up against the wall, giving them zero assistance in first-class cricket," the 40-year-old responded to the England cricket legend Michael Atherton, during a Sky Sports segment.
Pakistan cricket team under pressure against England in Leeds in Test match
Mumtaz revealed the ground reality of Pakistan cricket amid the Pakistan cricket team's tour of England. The Men in Green are currently in England for a three-match Test series. In the first innings of the ongoing Test match at Headingley Carnegie, Leeds, Pakistan lost all of their wickets for 171 runs. Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue, the pacer duo of the England National Cricket Team, got five wickets each to dismantle the Pakistan batting line-up.
On the same pitch, where the Pakistan batters had to toil for every run, England batters are performing with much comfort. Mumtaz belevued for the downfall of Pakistan's pace bowling, Babar Azam has left significant influence.
Urooj Mumtaz blames Babar Azam for Pakistan's pace bowling downfall
The former women's team cricketer noted that during Babar's first stint as the national team captain, he used to demand flat, batting-friendly surfaces so that the batters could score runs swiftly. To keep the captain's wish, grasses plucked off the pitches to prepare a batters' paradise.
"Especially when Babar was captain, he wanted flatter tracks, wanted the batsmen sort of dominated the way things ran more... It is very hard to believe, to say, that Pakistan’s quick bowling is not the strength," Urooj Mumtaz expressed.
Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah were among the few fast bowlers who came with some hope to revive the glory days of the nation's pace bowling history. However, injuries did not allow the bowlers to grow according to expectations. And now, they are not bowling as fast as they could have been.
"After the injury, he fell off," Urooj Mumtaz said about Shaheen Afridi, and to describe Shah, she said, "Naseem Shah is nowhere to be found."
