Actually I think Aamir & Fakhar deserve 40% of credits each, the rest of 20% belongs to Hafeez. He made the difference between a daunting 340 & manageable 315. Others who scored like Babar & Azhar didn't exactly put much pressure, their 85-90 strike rates were never going to make a difference against such a powerful batting line up.
Azhar set the tone from the start when Fakhar was struggling. That 6 to Ashwin is still vivid in my mind. And a 22 year old Babar played a fantastic anchor knock so that Fakhar can explode. Similarly, Amir was star of the bowling but Junaid, Shadab and Hassan were tremendous too.
That’s just standard Indian bitterness. Shoaib Akhtar is widely regarded as one the most feared bowlers when he was at his peak. All flat footed people have the fitness issues he had. You can’t fight genetics. Let’s just keep the discussion to the skill level and the impact of the player. If shoaib was a joke Pakistan would not have won tests in India in front of empty stands or won an ODi series in Australia completely decimating them (amongst other memorable victories)
I honestly don't have an idea of how good fans in Pakistan make out him to be.
The general discourse on PK social media suggests that he was certainly at Wasim's level.
Asif wasn't part of that disaster, he played from second test,you are referring to the first test.
Nothing exaggerated, Asif was the best new ball bowler pakistan have ever produced in test. Even better than wasim with new ball. Yes, in ODIs he was just average but could have been better there also if played more. In test he would have taken around 500+ wickets if had a full fletched career.I have always had this debate with my friends over the greatness of Muhammad Asif and I would also like to take the opinion of fellow PP members on this. Not sure if this topic has been discussed before.
Muhammad Asif has always been touted as a symbol of greatness across the cricketing sphere but I think at times it has been greatly exaggerated. For ones who watch football, he is a Ben Arfa more than anything else.
If you look at his ODI stats they are mediocre at best. If you even compare Rao Anjum with him, its a like for like comparison. I know stats don't show everything but come on, the stats should show something at least. I randomly compared him Rao because he isnt some special bowler but both have similar stats. You will see a similar picture when u compare Asif the ODI bowler with Aizaz Cheema. Plus, we also need to account for the fact that Asif didnt play much in Asia so his stats are a little inflated anyway. If anything, Rao has better overall stats than Asif.
Asif Fans - What am I missing here? Is there some aspect of his greatness that is beyond these stats?
Right is Asif, Left is Rao.
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Now if we talk about his performance in test match cricket, I agree he was much better there. Now we can compare Asif to Abbas in this case as both are similar style of bolwers and both have played similar number of matches. You will notice here that Asif does have better stats in this case but his stats arent mind blowingly better either. Abbas also toiled on the pitches of Dubai, something that Asif never had the privilege to do.
Right is Asif, Left is Abbas
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One final aspect to consider now is the lush green wickets Asif played on in his career. We all see his performances from that one test but his overall performance in Pakistan is nothing to write home about. He got bulk of his wickets in England just before getting banned in a season which was statistically the best season for fast bowlers in a decade. I have posted Anderson's stats from 2009 and 2010 and you will see how much better he performed during the same period.
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Anderson's stats during the 2010 season:
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So my question to all fans who consider Asif to be the greatest bowler who has walked the face of the earth. What am I missing guys?
I am not disputing the fact that he was a great bowler. He does make a good reels packagebut his greatness seems to be greatly overstated. Shaheen for example has better stats in Asia than Asif's career stat which comprise mostly playing in SENA countries, in a era where lush green pitches were the norm.
Zaheer Khan in his later career although a vastly different kind of pacer had something about him as well with his knack of picking up wickets at crucial times.
That will be Bumrah by a country mile.
The revisionism regarding Asif on this forum is relentless.
not just asif, its common practice for nearly every Pakistan players legacy to be underplayed. for a country that invented reverse swing, the doosra, arguably the reverse sweep, you'd think reading these forums pak have barely had better than club level players.
Well said. It’s all good. The elite level batsmen who have actually faced him are full of praise for him and put him in the bracket of the toughest bowler they’ve ever faced. Guys like KP, AB deVilliers and Amla.
I've always believed that the loss of Asif was a bigger tragedy for Pakistan cricket than the loss of Amir. Asif was the one who could create wonders more than Amir.
Really? Because I think the videos of him running through Laxman, Tendulkar and Dravid's defence in Karachi is pretty memorable tooAsif will be remembered as the guy who took performance enhancement drugs to bowl 125 kph.
Even Amir admitted this exact same thing not long after the spot-fixing scandal. Alot of people here are downplaying Asif's ability by talking about how he was not a good ODI bowler. Which makes me laugh because being a) the sample size is not significant enough to make that assertion, and b) people think of Asif like any other bowler. Which you can't, because his intelligence and sharpness was next level. And I am certain that he would have found a way to evolve to be successful in the era of flat ODI pitches too.
He didn’t take steroids (uppers) to boost speed, he took downers to give him beastly skills and temperamentAsif will be remembered as the guy who took performance enhancement drugs to bowl 125 kph.
if amir hadnt taken out rohit,virat and shikar dhawan.rohit alone wouldve chased the total
you can say favorable conditions , there is no such thing as extremely supportive pitch in test match scenario , yea one could see such type twice in a decade , some underprepared pitches.
The Karachi test against Ind was played on an excellent test wicket and majority of his tests were played on good test wickets. He struggled a little in Dubai but most fast bowers have found the conditions challenging especially in that era.
The wickets in South Africa and the one in Kandy were very seamer friendly wickets.
He did but wasnt as good. Low bounce and little on offer.
He didn't. Pakistan started playing in UAE only after Asif's ban. The matches were in Pakistan iirc.
i stand corrected
