The PCB has picked seamer Rahat Ali as a replacement for the injured Junaid Khan in Pakistan’s World Cup squad but ICC’s technical committee will need to approve the switch.
It is a good omen that a youngster is given the nod to participate in the Wimbledon of cricket ‘The World Cup’. But on the realistic ground, he has just played one international game and has zero wicket in his bag. It shows that the land that has produced legendry fast bowlers is facing the dearth of bowlers matching the international standards.
After the humiliating defeat in the two match series in the New Zeeland ahead of the world cup, it seems that we have the weakest bowling attack comparing with all other eight major teams of the world, to take part in the mega event. If the batsmen are unable to score centuries then bowlers are doing the job to give away plenty of runs, Bilawal Bhatti gave away 93 runs in ten overs, matching the worst record of Wahab Riaz. If we put a glance on the bowling strength we would be disappointed to know the facts that only Shahid Afridi is a bowler who has vast experience in the international level. Not a single bowler apart from him played 50 international matches. Wahab Riaz 47, Muhammad Irfan 40, Haris Sohail 11, Sohail Khan 5, Ehsan Adil 4, Yasir Shah and Rahit Ali have played just single game each.
PCB has done miserable job to build a strong bowling and bating unit ahead of the world cup. We all knew that Saeed Ajmal and Hafeez would not be available to help the bowling unit, at that crucial time PCB could have done a better job to find a match winning bowling unit. Now we can just hope for the best performance from our bowling unit which seems toothless.
