Obviously after both Wasim and Waqar retired, they left a huge void in the Pakistani bowling department, not to mention huge shoes to fill.
I doubt we’ll ever see such a potent opening bowling attack ever again, but it’s exciting to think about the prospect of Asif and Akhtar remaining fit for at least two or three years.
Like Wasim and Waqar, they too are relatively different bowlers but compliment each other beautifully.
What do you guys think? Is it safe to finally “move on” from the two W’s and start paying attention to the two A’s ? By no means am I suggesting to ‘forget’ about Wasim and Waqar… but for the last few years, we’ve been talking about the void in the opening bowling attack, and after watching the last couple of ODI’s, I think it’s safe to say that there is a lot of potential in Asif and Akhtar.
I guess we should wait for them to play out a few games/series to see if they’re the real deal?
Immediately after the world cup 2003, we all were excited about Three S's (Shoaib, Sami, Shabbir) but see how that worked out...
Its a good start for both Shoaib and Asif and it started in series against India. Lets hope both of them stay fit because they have it in them to form prbably best opening partnership in the world
Akhtar and Asif's combo is the real deal. Asif is way ahead of Sami, Shabbir, Rana and Gul combined. If he keeps his focus, he has the potential to bag enormous amount of wickets.
Mark my words: Asif is gonna be a bigger phannay khan than Akhtar could ever be. But that doesn't diminish the fact that he is an awesome bowler. Lets hope he keeps his focus on bowling, and lets the ball do the talking.
Good interesting take on two A's. It's really too early to compare them to two great W's but definitely, there combination is making a mark and I really do hope that pretty soon we can call them real threat as two great A's.
Asif is still young, don't get your hopes up, he hasn't been too effective on flat pitches tho whereas Akhtar can still pick up wickets because of his sheer pace.
So far he is doing great MashaAllah. He has ability to pick early wickets. Shoaib Akhtar was just congratulated for his 200 wickets after being so long at the age of 31. Look at Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis's wickets in which Shoaib Akhtar does not even come near to them in terms of higher wickets. Shoaib Akhtar has not took many wickets throughout his career. His number of wickets equal to an all rounder's wickets.
^He is 7th on the list for fastest to 200 wickets with the other elite bowlers. He's just been injured a lot, if he had played all the games, he cud be around 300 right now.
I doubt we'll ever see such a potent opening bowling attack ever again, but it's exciting to think about the prospect of Asif and Akhtar remaining fit for at least two or three years.
Like Wasim and Waqar, they too are relatively different bowlers but compliment each other beautifully.
What do you guys think? Is it safe to finally "move on" from the two W's and start paying attention to the two A's ? By no means am I suggesting to 'forget' about Wasim and Waqar... but for the last few years, we've been talking about the void in the opening bowling attack, and after watching the last couple of ODI's, I think it's safe to say that there is a lot of potential in Asif and Akhtar.
I guess we should wait for them to play out a few games/series to see if they're the real deal?
Quite an arousing read, I agree. They do have a tendency to form a potent dangerous duo (similar to McGrath/Lee combination), and as rest of the folks have indicated, if they manage to play the next half a dozen matches together, by the start of next World Cup, they will be, once again, strongly scrutnized and compared to the two W's.
But it has left no imagination to fulfill that these two possess the ability to terrorize opponents in their most puissant form.
Give the guy a break though. He's barely started his bowling career. Probably the only thing that is of a concern is his growing ego and cockiness. If his ego gets way over his head (as we have seen with many Pakistani athletes), we can expect to see his skills plummet.
But if he can remain focused, surrounded by mature and good mentors, then I see no reason to not get excited about his potential.
As for Asif on flat tracks... If you recall the matches vs both India and Sri Lanka, he literally walked over their batting lineups. It was those performances that made the fans grow more interest in seeing him bowl on a seeming english pitch.
Tu bhai where else flat pitches exist if they don’t exist in Pakistan, Srilanka etc? In australia and england?
He can be all cocky and aggresive as long as he is doing that on cricket field while bowling and not off the field:snooty: . To be very honest, people love such attitude of a fast bowler.
Rana is missing his form and has not impressed till now (like Aaqib), (we are) also missing his partner (Mushtaq Ahmed) who can get 1-2 difficult wickets during middle overs so that 2A's can get easy wickets of tail enders. So opposition is able to score easily after the opening spells of 2 A's. Pak need another pacer (give a chance to Sami) and a quality spinner (Bring Mushtaq Ahmed back). The opposition must be kept under-pressure and must not score (easily) for full 50 overs.
The combination of boys is going well till now, anyway.
