Muhammad Amir frankly looks like a spent force at this very moment. The 2015 Amir was swinging the ball and still had decent pace but looked dodgy in terms of match fitness. Granted he wasn't setting the world at fire but he still looked a decent yet slightly unlucky bowler and it was said that he's been out of cricket for 05 years and it takes time to readjust.
We were however told he will go from strength to strength in terms of bowling but if you look at his general physique right now, it doesn't look like one of a proper fast bowler and he looks even less prepared as he was back in 2015. He was always wiry but if you look at the Karachi Kings kit thread, you will see that he has gained some weight and that too at all the wrong places.
There's also a case of sharp decline in his average speed. Even in the CT 17', he was able to bowl at 145 kph and more with relative ease and his fast arm action was making him difficult to pick. The runup was smoother, the jump higher and some semblance of seam and swing movement.
All of that feels a distant memory now. Here's a bowler who is bowling more and more like Mustafizur without Mustafizur's wrists and guile for the deadly cutter.
Shaheen, on the other hand, looks like a bowler who is interested in taking wickets in whatever form of cricket that he plays. He is not ready for test cricket yet and we shouldn't be playing him in T20 cricket but that's another matter. ODI's are his format now and that's what our management should focus on. He can play test cricket but he hasn't fully grown into his body as he's just 18 and UAE is a graveyard for fast bowlers and with our scant resources, there's no point burning him out on those remorseless pitches.
Shaheen pitches the bowl up, attacks both inside and outside edge of the bat, and is able to bounce out batsmen as well. He also seems to hit 140 kph mark more often and looks generally interested in the competition and enjoys playing cricket.
Amir isn't the thoroughbred that some of us thought he might be, he's now in need of serious motivation and game development. He is by far our best T20 bowler and should be the second name on the T20 team after Babar but overall his ODI and Test cricket fortunes have declined to a stage where it requires immediate remedial action.
He, however, is the only bowler from Pakistan that may have some psychological impact on certain players from other countries or is capable of bowling a downright brilliant spell every once in a blue moon. That makes him better than the likes of Shinwari, Raees, etc. but that isn't saying much.
Shaheen's star is on the rise and he may fulfill his talent, Amir's moment it seems, has come and gone (unless he really gets serious about it) and he'll probably be best remembered for not what he did on the field in terms of achievements, but for bowling a couple of no-balls.
