When Pakistan last arrived in England for a Test tour, in the Covid-bubble summer of 2020, they brought along the future. Shaheen Shah Afridi, 20, was the towering left-armer set for world domination. Naseem Shah, 17, was armed with a Test hat-trick and a velvety action, the right arm whipping the ball down at 90mph.
They looked the part, carrying the grand traditions of Pakistani fast bowling, a reminder of the golden names that came before: Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis. Mohammad Abbas joined Shaheen and Naseem in that seam attack as the odd man out, 30 and medium-fast, a first-class specialist, the accountant in a movie-star lineup. But six years on Abbas is the great survivor, the only one of that triumvirate named in Pakistan’s squad for their three-Test series in England starting next week.
Shaheen and Naseem have suffered for their art – the former has struggled with the red ball since a knee injury in 2022 – and fallen victim to the tragicomic mismanagement of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Abbas is well known to English audiences. Now 36, he has an exceptional record in the County Championship, taking 302 wickets at 20.64 for Leicestershire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and not much has changed at Test level.
Making the ball dance off the seam, he has 118 wickets for Pakistan at a staggering average of 22.38. Nottinghamshire’s Peter Moores and Derbyshire’s Mickey Arthur are two coaches who have seen the mastery up close. He can get it nipping in, nipping out.
And he bowls a really good wobble ball as well, so he’s got it all.” Moores describes a bowler who can adapt to any surface while Arthur raves about his control. Yet Pakistan have still found ways to ignore him; Abbas has only 30 caps across a nine-year Test career. Operating in the mid-70s (mph), his speeds look out of place in the international game.
And those players are so valuable. You’ve just got to make sure you treat them with the respect they deserve because his record tells you he gets wickets and he never lets you down.” Nonetheless, Abbas’s reward for taking eight wickets in Pakistan’s defeat in the first Test against West Indies in July was to be dropped for the second. The spinners took over in Port of Spain, with Sajid Khan’s off-breaks delivering eight wickets to level the two-match series, and the slow stuff has brought Pakistan their doses of joy in the past couple of years.
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