Abbas in the first innings and Hasan are failing overseas where they are expected to perform.
So the leader needs others to fail to justify himself as leader. If he is the leader, and I am not convinced that he is, then the state of Pakistan bowling can only be described as sorry.
Firstly a bowler who doesn't make the playing 11 on slow pitches cannot justify himself as the leader of the pace attack since half the times he wouldn't even play.
Secondly it's amazing how this thread was quite for 4 sessions! for 4 sessions Amir picked one wicket in total. Thread gets bumped after he does a clean up job, though granted he did a very good job. Actually I even bumped the 2018 thread yesterday where we had this discussion before but no one could reply.
People are just reading the final figures and going on how great Amir bowled. Amir has got 4/88 and Steyn got 4/85, Amir has a better average than Dale Steyn this series. But can anyone seriously say with a straight face that Amir bowled better than Dale Steyn?
Amir's performances remind me of how Anderson went about last time in the UAE. He would bowl extremely economical spells and come back with ultimate figures like 3/57-average 19, what that doesn't show is that he took would usually take 25 overs for that and Pakistan would score 400+. Exactly the same thing as Amir here. Great figures but utterly without impact. These are the sort of bowling performances you get from support bowlers. That has how Amir has bowled like, a very good support bowler.
The thing is though Abbas isn't a strike bowler as well. He follows the formula of Philander but Philander has 2 great strike bowlers on his side(btw Big Vern only managed 2 wickets at 43 this match at a ground where he averages 16, might not have been the pitch for these bowlers). But Abbas earned the position of leader of the attack by being the best bowler for over an year and delivering at all venues and not just playing when conditions suit. Abbas has failed in a grand total of 2 matches, second NZ test where he went wicketless and this match. NZ test was where he picked up his injury and didn't bowl too much as well and this test was his first match on bouncy tracks with no practice right after the injury lay-off and that too on a pitch where Philander himself averaged 43. 2 matches aren't enough to take away his hard earned title especially when he has no experience of these conditions.
If Pakistan means to get the most out of Amir and Abbas then they need a Strike bowler. Pakistan's best bet in that regard is Hassan Ali as Shaheen is still too raw. When Pakistan needed to defend 149 the supposed leader of the pace attack did absolutely nothing but his usual stuff of containment. The inexperienced Hassan Ali was the one who struck and almost had SA 2 down for less than 20 only for Fakhar to shell the chance. But people who can't be bothered to look past averages won't understand the worth of impact and intent. Meanwhile Amir was bowling his usual defensive lines and came back wicketless.
And about that "expected to perform". Amir was the one who was expected to perform and bowl like a strike bowler because he has the experience of 2 tours of Australia and 2 tours of NZ. He is the guy who should know how to run through sides but instead he hasn't even managed 6 wickets in a match in the past 12 months where he bowled in England, Ireland and South Africa despite being an experienced campaigner.
