Bilal Asif thanks the former Pakistan cricketer after a sensational Test debut

At 33, Bilal Asif didn’t look a perfect candidate for a Test beginning. His bowling action also came under suspicion during a One-Day series against Zimbabwe in 2015. But when the chance came his way, the Pakistani off-spinner grabbed it with both hands. The bowler took six wickets in his debut Test innings to floor Australia in Dubai and put his team in a commanding position in the two-match series.

Asif ran through the Australian batting order after they put up a solid opening partnership of 142 runs. His spell of 6/36 in 21.3 overs eventually saw the Baggy Greens collapsing to 202 in response to Pakistan’s first innings score of 482. Pakistan did not enforce a follow-on and lost a few quick wickets towards the end of Day 3 and finished at 47 for 3, taking an overall lead of 327 runs.

Asif, who averages 31.22 in first-class cricket and has a five-wicket haul in the three ODIs he played in 2015, did not get a game last year when Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka in the UAE. After having warmed the bench, he went back to practice hard and produced good shows with the ball to eventually get a chance to represent his country in the longer format.

Hard work was all I could do

“Being a professional cricketer, you have to be tough mentally. I always kept working hard. I never thought whether I would get a chance or not. It’s with Allah, you know, when you will get your chance and how you can grab them by performing. What I could do was to work hard on my game. And that’s what I was doing,” Khaleej Times quoted Asif as saying on Tuesday.

Asif also took the moment to reveal how former Pakistani leg-break bowler Mushtaq Ahmed helped him hone his skills. “I was out of the team since 2015, I was at the NCA camp where I worked with Mushybhai. I need to really thank him for the work he did with me,” the spinner added.

He was praised for not allowing the raw nerves to intervene and flighted the ball to deceive the batsmen. He took the wicket of Australia’s highest scorer Usman Khawaja (85) along with some other top batsmen. Asif also defended senior spinner Yasir Shah who went wicketless in the first innings, saying he himself was a bit lucky to get the wickets.

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