All-Shah Attack
Something special is brewing, no one wants to jinx it because we've been here before but in Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan may have unearthed the next great fast-bowling partnership the country has yearned for way too long. It may be another false dawn, so much could go wrong in typical Pakistani fashion but with these two there is a sense of excitement, which hasn't been felt in quite a while.
Ever since Wasim and Waqar called it a day, no Pakistani pacer has gone on to play even 50 test matches and close to 2 decades have passed since then. No one would have thought so at the time of their retirement though with the two S's, Shoaib and Sami seen as even more ferociously rapid ready-made replacements for the two W's. Unfortunately, injuries, indiscipline and inconsistency saw them both in and out of the side and the deadly pace duo never lived up to expectations.
Instead Pakistan went through a phase where they relied more on the batting of the legendary Younis, Yousuf and Inzamam than their bowling consisting of the two R's, Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan and Rao Iftikhar Anjum who were honest try hard bowlers but were unable to capture the imagination of the public.
Around 2010 another pace attack had been assembled, one that shun so bright it literally translated to fire in Urdu. The ‘AAG' attack was one of a kind laying waste to English and Australian line-ups time and again. It was a trio led by the world's best swing bowler Asif sharing the new ball with the world's brightest left arm prospect Amir and consolidated by the world's best death-bowler Umar Gul. Sadly, the spot-fixing scandal robbed us of the two A's in the AAG attack. The flame shone so bright it flickered away as soon as we got near; ‘Icarus flew too close to the sun'. Tears in my eyes to this day.
For a while it was tough to bear but we tried to move on and rebuild with Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan but they were too thin a bandage to cover the gaping hole that had been left in our heart. Even the reintroduction of Amir 2.0 couldn't heal the wound he had left behind, that is until now.
Pakistan's last two test matches not only saw the return of Pakistan playing and winning tests at home, it saw two teenagers bowl them to victory. In the first of these two wins Shaheen took 5 wickets in the first innings only for Naseem to replicate the feat in the second innings. While in the latest test Shaheen once again tore through the first innings with 4 wickets with Naseem returning the favor in the second innings once more with a match-winning hat-trick. These performances have made the similarities hard to ignore with the two W's; the left arm, right arm combination, the lanky leftie and the rapid righty, even the difference in height is almost the same.
Pakistan are still some way from building an All-Star attack but if we can find another Shah to compliment Shaheen, Naseem and Yasir we can at least claim to have the first All-Shah attack. Sorry had to be said, plus I needed a heading. Moving on, there is so much that could go wrong, which may rob us off seeing the dream pair finally come to fruition. Ideally, we don't bowl them into the ground and their workload can be managed with the 3 H's, Haris, Hasan and Hasnain providing support in white-ball cricket and Abbas in tests. Apart from injuries and mismanagement by the board they have to tread carefully with regards to the lure of quick bucks through T20 leagues or worse spot-fixing. Their own indiscipline and work-ethic may let them down themselves but they have enough cautionary tales in front of them to hopefully know better. We shouldn't get carried away but it's alright to dream just a little bit.
https://www.brecorder.com/2020/02/13/570624/all-shah-attack/
