Is Mushtaq Ahmed the 'secret weapon' Pakistan is looking for?

In the England Twenty20 Cup competition this season, a contest where big hitting is the order of the day, Mushtaq's 14 wickets in eight matches were picked up at a mere 8.21 runs apiece

By Gul Hameed Bhatti

Over the last few days, the name of veteran Pakistan leg-spin bowler Mushtaq Ahmed has sprung up in the national press here as well as among the cricketing fraternity of the country quite frequently. As the little leg-break bowler continues to pick wicket after wicket for Sussex in the County Championship in England and, with the England team getting ready to begin a tour of Pakistan late next month, there have first been whispers and then open suggestions that Mushtaq could well become an important component of Pakistan's spin bowling attack when the England team arrives here.

The Englishmen, having won their first Ashes title in 18 years when they clinched the recent five-Test series against Australia, are certainly riding the crest of a wave. It may also be kept in mind that the last time that they were here in Pakistan -- in the 2000-01 season -- they had run away with the Test match rubber and, of all places, they had beaten the hosts in the final Test at Karachi's National Stadium where Pakistan had never been defeated before, or even eversince.

Much water has flown under the bridge since that series. After their latest triumph England, whose stature has been consistently on the up for the last couple of years or so, have closed the gap between themselves and Australia at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Ranking table. Australia now have a total of 127 points and England, with 119, are only eight points behind.

Pakistan have a lot of catching up to do. With a mere 95 points they are currently languishing at the number seven spot, behind India, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka -- in that order. Only West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are placed beneath them in the 10-Test playing teams' table.

Yet, after the recent Test rubbers in India and the West Indies, where Pakistan levelled the series at one-all on either occasion, the mood in this part of the world is quite upbeat and the Pakistanis actually believe that England remain beatable. Much hard work will, however, have to be put into all Pakistan's efforts if they hope to win a Test series against England this time.

That's perhaps one of the reasons why Mushtaq Ahmed's name has been bandied about. But Mushy played the last of his 52 Test matches for Pakistan in October two years ago. Earlier during the same month, he appeared in his 144th One-day International and has since not been chosen by the Pakistan selectors. But the Sahiwal-born leg-break and googly expert has not ceased to be in the news and, at least for the last three summers, has been the top wicket-taker in first-class cricket in England.

It could be said that Mushtaq has been a victim of the vagaries of Pakistan cricket selection, but for some years he hasn't really done anything substantial for his country at the international level and not done himself any good by producing one mediocre performance after another. Strangely enough, a bowler who has picked up 185 wickets in Test matches and another 161 in One-day Internationals, managed to scrape together a mere nine wickets in his last 13 Tests, all played during the current decade.

Mushtaq hasn't been on the selectors' wish list for Pakistan's last 15 Test matches. When he was chosen for two games against South Africa in October 2003, he had missed his country's previous 20 Tests. Pakistan's main attack bowling thrust at the time was entrusted to the faster bowlers with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis -- with the addition of Shoaib Akhtar later on -- continuing to be among the wickets. For spin bowling duty, off-break bowler Saqlain Mushtaq appeared to be a good enough prospect.

Mushtaq's form and wicket-taking ability -- at least at the international level -- had dwindled dismally. When the England team under Nasser Hussain arrived here in November 2000 for a three-Test series, even with Waqar Younis not being able to play in the first two Tests, the intentions of the home selectors were clear. They opted to hit the Englishmen with their spin bowling armoury. The ploy in fact failed.

In the first Test match at Lahore, which was eventually drawn, England ran up a score of 480 runs for the loss of eight wickets before Hussain applied closure. All eight wickets were, incidentally, captured by Saqlain Mushtaq but he bowled as many as 74 overs for this return and conceded 164 runs. Mushtaq had figures of 0-132 from 44 overs and, although he picked up a wicket in the second innings, he was discarded for the rest of the rubber, his place going to debutant leg-spinner Danish Kaneria who has since developed into Pakistan's frontline slow bowler with a bundle of wickets to his credit.

As mentioned earlier, Pakistan went on to be defeated 1-0 in the series with a loss in the third Test at Karachi. England had beaten Pakistan in a Test rubber on the latter's soil only once before -- almost 40 years earlier in 1961-62. Since 1987, Pakistan had won all the last three series played in England, so the 2000-01 debacle was surely worth a serious thought.

The Pakistani bowling, even when judged overall in the context of the three Tests, was in fact a total failure. Saqlain, of course, emerged as the leading wicket-taker with a haul of 18 at an average of 23.94 but all the others found it considerably difficult to get even half that much.

If the national selectors had believed that England could be combatted with Pakistan's spin bowling resources, they were in for a rude shock. Shahid Afridi's brisk leg-spin fetched him only four wickets in three Tests, newcomer Danish Kaneria got four too but in two Tests, Mushtaq was sidelined after taking only a solitary wicket and off-spinner Arshad Khan, chosen for just one match, picked up three wickets.

The pace bowlers too were ineffective. Waqar Younis bagged five wickets in his only Test match but Wasim Akram managed only two while Abdul Razzaq's total was a mere four expensive wickets in three Tests. And the irony of it all was that the only spin bowler in the England squad worth his salt proved to be their match-winning player!

In the third Test at Karachi, which England won by six wickets in extremely gloomy conditions with the light almost gone, left-arm slow bowler Ashley Giles had figures of 4-94 and 3-38 to lead his team to a win. Giles, in fact, ended up as England's top wicket-taker with a total of 17 at 24.11 runs apiece.

Five years later, the now 32-year-old Giles is England's leading spinner although he is now overshadowed to quite an extent at time by the fast bowling attack comprising Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff. But, at the time of his last Pakistan tour, he was just a rookie in the context of Test cricket. Before his match-winning role here, he had appeared for England in just a single Test match -- against South Africa at home in the summer of 1998.

In spite of the fact that the Pakistanis gave a good account of themselves in the last two Test series in India and West Indies, their bowling ability still left a lot to be desired. If it was not for the efforts of a great trier like Danish Kaneria it would have looked pedestrian. With Shoaib Akhtar out of action, the captain depended too heavily on Shabbir Ahmed with Razzaq only managing to be second best.

The reality of Pakistan's dwindling bowling resources really has not struck home yet. Shabbir's future is under a cloud with his action being termed suspect for the third time in his career. Both Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul have been on the mend after nursing various injuries but their true match form is still to be tested.

Shoaib Akhtar has made satisfactory progress in recent weeks but his fitness remains ambiguous. Razzaq is surely not the frontline bowler any more that he can be trusted to operate with the new ball on merit alone. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, in spite of his success with Sussex in English county cricket, still cannot be considered a bowler ideally suited to Test matches.

Saqlain, after more than a year out of action recently returned to play for Surrey after two operations on his bad knees. He is still a mere shadow of his previous self and will surely not be in Pakistan's plans to target England. This really leaves the selectors with Danish Kaneria as the frontline spinner, with Shahid Afridi able to help him out on occasions and, perhaps, that's why the return of Mushtaq Ahmed may have a logical tinge to it.

Mushtaq, now 35 years old, has been bowling as well as ever -- even if it has been only on the English county circuit. In 2003, he became the first bowler in five years to take a hundred wickets (his tally was 103) in first-class cricket in England and, in the process, helped Sussex win their first-ever County Championship title -- mind you, this event had been introduced as far back as in 1890!

The next season too, Mushtaq was the top wicket-taker in England, this time bagging a total of 84. In 2005, with the end of the summer still a few days away, he has taken more wickets (75) than anyone on the England first-class circuit.

If that's not been enough, and although Sussex didn't feature among the top teams eventually, Mushtaq proved that he was a young-thinking individual not averse to continue to experiment. In the England Twenty20 Cup competition this season, a contest where big hitting is the order of the day, Mushtaq's 14 wickets in eight matches were picked up at a mere 8.21 runs apiece. His best bowling was 5-11, not bad for a spin bowler who, at least age-wise, may be considered on his way down the hill.

Rumour has it that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is seriously thinking of appointing Mushtaq as assistant to the national coach Bob Woolmer, keeping in view his vast experience of cricket at all levels. In addition, both Woolmer and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq feel that Mushy has a role to play in the England series as a leg-break bowler. Maybe he will turn out to be the 'secret weapon' that the Pakistan team has been looking for sometime!

Gul Hameed Bhatti is Group Sports Editor of the Jang Group of Newspapers.

His e-mail address: gulhbhatti@hotmail.com