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Shaheen Shah and Naseem Shah to carry Pakistan's fast bowling flame for the 2020s decade?

Titan24

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Pakistan has produced fast bowling gems like Fazal Mehmood (1950s/60s), Sarfaraz Nawaz (1960s/70s/80s), Imran Khan (80s/90s), Wasim Akram (80s/90s,2000s), Waqar Younis (90s/2000s) and Shoaib Akhtar (90s/2000s 2010s).

As we can see Pakistan's legendary fast bowlers kept on transferring their flame to other great talents decade after decade. Biggest gap came in from 2010s and not because there werent the bowlers to take the flame forward but the ones who were supposed to take it forward rather burned their careers with it.

In 2005 came Mohammad Asif who was a magician with the ball in hand and many modern greats like Hashim Amla and Kevin Pieterson are couple among the list of great batsmen who are witnesses to magic Asif created within those 22 yards.A short but remarkable career ended on a depressing note in 2010 with match fixing scandal.

That match fixing scandal also ruined crucial 5 years of another bowler with great potential in Mohammad Amir. How he and his body would have progressed if he didnt make that poor choice of spot fixing nobody will ever know. Being the youngest to be nominated for Wisden cricketer and having his name on Lord's honor board at the age of 18 before getting banned was a testimony of the skills he had.

Considering the above list, its pretty evident that bowlers with such capabilities are not very common and it takes an average of around a decade to produce them. 90s was an anomaly and thus gave one of the best decades of Pakistan's cricket history.

So after young Mohammad Amir in 2010 we might have finally got couple of youngsters to take the flame of Pakistan's bowling legacy forward for the next decade.

Shaheen Shah already has proven in potential in ODIs by creating 3 records in his first WC itself i.e Youngest to take a 5fer in WC, best bowling figures by a Pakistani in the WC, youngest to take a 5fer in Lord's history and finished the WC as 4th highest wicket taker.

Shaheen has got height 6ft6 and pace which goes to high 140s and ability to move the ball off the seam and he is just 19 years old.

Naseem Shah on the other hand is 16,17 year old young pacer who recently struggled with back injury but that dint hamper his comeback with a 6fer in the new QAE trophy which is offering tough conditions for pacers. That 6fer included dismissals of FC veterans like Abid Ali and international veteran like Asad Shafiq and that too being completely bamboozling them with his pace and movement.

He is already in the limelight in Australia after bowling just 8 overs and that too in a warm up match.

Both Shaheen and Naseem have showed potential and spark at very young age and might be those rare bowlers who will carry the flame of Pakistan's fast bowling legacy for the decade of 2020s.
 
Allah nazar e bud sai bachai.
inshaAllah these are the boys.
I rate Abbas highly too so that could have the makings of a proper pace attack inshaAllah.
Just need to find a spinner
 
The most promising pacers to come from pakistan in 20-30 years apart from Amir. These guys have brilliant fitness, pace and skill. Shaheen has the height. They may even be more promising than Amir was in 2009.
 
so excited to see these 2 bowl in tandem. What an explosive duo. Potential to be as good if not better than waqar and wasim. Good luck boys. Please destroy australia. I have total faith in the bowling. Battinf better back them up.
 
They certainly have the potential.

That in itself is amazing.

But Amir showed us how things can go pear-shaped even when you're blessed with incredible skill. These guys need to put their head down and make the most of their talent.
 
They clearly have the talent.

Hopefully they are guided well and they continue to strive for improvement.

So far they both have worked hard hard to return from setbacks: Naseem from injury and Shaheen did well to regain his form after a tough patch in ODI’s to do well in the WC.

I don’t think they will end up like Hasan Ali for instance.
 
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They clearly have the talent.

Hopefully they are guided well and they continue to strive for improvement.

So far they both have worked hard hard to return from setbacks: Naseem from injury and Shaheen did well to regain his form after a tough patch in ODI’s to do well in the WC.

I don’t think they will end up like Hasan Ali for instance.

That's the only concern. managing workload and stamina/ fitness. If all goes well they will be all time greats.
You don't just come onto the scene in a premier event and just perform without any talent. These guys have world class talent and that's exactly why shaheen was able to perform in the world cup and naseem recently in his little stint vs australia A which had some top level players.
 
God save their careers and give them success

Over the years post 1999 we have produced so many players that got ruined due to their idiotic actions or just unfortunate incidents and suffered.

Hasan Ali is the latest example
 
Just let them play and develop. Don’t worry about them being as good as ex great players.
 
Yes. We either put them on too high a pedestal or drop them too far off the cliff. Best to manage their workload and our expectations for now.

They don’t need to be as good ex great players anyway. As long as they are good enough for international cricket and do their job and develop, that’s good enough.
 
They certainly have the potential.

That in itself is amazing.

But Amir showed us how things can go pear-shaped even when you're blessed with incredible skill. These guys need to put their head down and make the most of their talent.

Well you really can’t compare them to Aamir’s development as he missed 5-6 years of cricket. Just to have Aamir back is a great thing.
 
They clearly have the talent.

Hopefully they are guided well and they continue to strive for improvement.

So far they both have worked hard hard to return from setbacks: Naseem from injury and Shaheen did well to regain his form after a tough patch in ODI’s to do well in the WC.

I don’t think they will end up like Hasan Ali for instance.

I agree and especially with so many T20s as well now a days, it has been difficult to manage workload of pacers and Pakistan needs to define separate set of pacers for T20s. I think Shaheen and Naseem should only play T20 WC, maybe few important T20 series like vs Aus, Eng and NZ, PSL.

Bowlers like Amir, Haris Rauf, Hassan Ali, Wahab, Amad Butt, Hasnain and even someone like Sohail Tanvir (Who is still good enough to do the job in T20s) should be enough to do the job in most T20 series.
 
The potential is certainly there.

PCB needs to teach the young lads discipline and professionalism. Past experiences tell us that Pakistanis usually get carried by fame and money.
 
Have a set of bowlers for t20 and another set of bowlers for test for example

Amir
Musa
Husnain
Rauf
Ammad butt for t20s

And then tests
Abbas
Shaheen
Naseem shah
Sameen gull
Musa khan
 
We've been here so many times before..

Amir, Asif, Gul = AAG
and so on.

throughout the 2000's we could never get out first eleven bowling line-up on the field.
In 2006 Akhtar and Asif were injured in England and we had a second string attack up to the Oval test match...

Prior to this, we all held our breath to see Akhtar and Mohammad Zahid bowl in tandem. but that didn't last long either.

In each decade since the late 70's we have been blessed to have great talent with the ball.
Furthermore, these bowlers actually performed on the international stage in tests prior something getting in their way, whether injury, doping, or spot fixing...

So lets just have some perspective and wait for these to guys to perform first.
 
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