After a previous trip to South Africa cost him, he put in the hard yards to expand his skillset. He might also expand Pakistan’s definition of pace bowing if Centurion is anything to go by
Danyal Rasool31-Dec-2024Even career arcs that appear predestined require an inordinate amount of good fortune often taken for granted, or forgotten altogether. Had Bach been on another continent where the organ had still not been widely adopted as a musical instrument, or Shakespeare come of age before London became the global centre for theatre, it is difficult to imagine their reputations surviving into this age so embellished. One’s environment and circumstance invariably influence the individual, and it’s almost certain those who didn’t have circumstantial serendipity vastly outnumber the few who have.Which brings us, perhaps not quite neatly, but linearly enough, to Mohammad Abbas. If his skillset were a UCAS form and his birthplace a university of choice, Pakistan would hardly be number one. He is a medium-fast bowler in a land where such characters have at best been ignored, at worst ridiculed. He’s not even from “up north”, which, as anyone who has ever heard Wasim Akram commentate, might imagine is a nebulous magical land which has learned to specialise in sling-shotting lumps of cork and leather at furious velocity.Related
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No, Abbas is a playwright in a land of cave paintings. A kind of hopeless romantic who, when he worked at a leather factory and welder in his home town of Sialkot, reportedly used to say all he needed was an opportunity. In Pakistani cricket, it can take a lot more than that, but Abbas emerged, making no apologies for his modest pace, and set about outshining anyone and everyone who could hurl the ball quicker than him.But in Pakistani cricket, Abbas knows that lack of pace will always count against him. He may have averaged 23 per wicket in his first four years, a number only bettered by Imran Khan for Pakistan; frankly, just about every cricketing number tends to be bettered by Imran for Pakistan. However, it would not stop Abbas being excluded for nearly four years, partly because that lack of pace was shown up in South Africa in 2019, a tour defined by high pace which only served to magnify Abbas’ toothlessness when he lacked it.And that is an inherent disadvantage for any medium-fast bowler, Pakistani or otherwise. A fast bowler might be getting smashed around on a flat wicket, but will invariably produce moments that amplify the excitement, subtly indicating the height of their ceiling. It might be a bouncer that has a batter scrambling to get out of the way of, the one inswinging yorker that has them hobbling, or that long follow-through which brings them nose-to-nose with a batter. A medium-pacer out of form has… nothing. The same gentle delivery stride, harmless trajectory, a declawed amateur being torn apart by professionals.Mohammad Abbas triggered a South African collapse to nearly bowl Pakistan to a Test win in Centurion•Gallo ImagesSo when Abbas was given another shot, having spent years impressing domestically, particularly in England where his nagging accuracy and ability to move the ball off the seam can prove particularly lethal, South Africa, the site of his most prominent enervation, seemed a risky place to do it.Not least because his pace had dropped even further from that already low starting point; in 2018, he averaged 127.55 kph across Test cricket – by no means express, but, with his combination of six-pence accuracy, sideways movement, and use of the crease, remarkably destructive. But he wasn’t a young man when he started, and approaching his 35th birthday, those numbers had been on a glidepath towards a level unsustainably slow in the modern international game.And in the first innings in Centurion, that average had dropped to its lowest level; he was down to 123.67 kph, sending down multiple deliveries that didn’t crack 120. In a game where three of South Africa’s four quicks were repeatedly breaching 140kph, Abbas was negotiated with ease. Even the seam movement was conspicuously lacking, and the one wicket he managed was assisted by the pitch rather than any sort of plan Abbas deployed. Even on his last, unsuccessful tour of South Africa, his average pace was 126.15 kph.
Broken only by stumps on day three and the lunch break on day four, he sent down 19.3 overs, the oldest bowler in the attack never once taken off. His accuracy was almost a given; 86 of his 117 deliveries hit a hard length outside off stump taking three wickets.
Just like Abbas has taught Pakistan a few things about the misconceptions around the correlation between pace and potency, he had picked up a few things along the way himself. He was not, after all, naive enough to think the one arrow in his quiver would suffice, and has busied himself adding to his arsenal over the years. A glance through his social media accounts shows you scores of videos of Abbas in the gym, doing fitness work, weight training, cardio exercises, anything that helps him get stronger even as age sends his body the other way.In the second innings, with Pakistan defending a low total and consistency more valuable than sporadic explosive brilliance, Abbas would bring all of that to bear. Broken only by stumps on day three and the lunch break on day four, he sent down 19.3 overs, the oldest bowler in the attack never once taken off. His accuracy was almost a given; 86 of his 117 deliveries hit a hard length outside off stump taking three wickets, with a further 17 that targeted off stump producing the other three at a rate of more than one every over.But if you wondered if this prolonged legwork would have an even more deleterious effect on his pace, think again. Instead, his speed was up to 125.57, and the bouncer Graeme Welch, his coach at Hampshire, had encouraged him to add to his game was every bit as uncomfortable to deal with as an express pacer’s. But what also mattered was where he bowled these deliveries from. For the 18 Tests before this Abbas played that Cricviz has data for, his release position has hovered between 2.014m and 2.068m. With the exploitation of bounce more important here than perhaps anywhere else, Abbas’ average release point at Centurion was 2.103m, more than half of his entire variance across the other Test matches in his career.It all paints a picture of a bowler in a world entirely outside his comfort zone managing to find ways to bend itself to his will. It may not have been quite enough in the end at SuperSport Park, but he knows how to look for ways to make sure that changes next time. And, above all, Abbas has understood there is more than one way to make batters uncomfortable. He may never be able to fit the Pakistani mould, but he appears on the right track to ensure the Pakistani mould can expand wide enough to include him.
