Pakistan's fast bowling regressed in last 10-12 years due to playing in UAE: Waqar Younis

Pakistan’s former bowling coach Waqar Younis is of the opinion that playing in the UAE over the last decade affected the quality of bowlers in the country. International cricket has started returning to the country in the last few years only. Playing constantly in the UAE led to them depending on the spinners a lot to win the matches according to Waqar.

Having said that, Pakistan is always known to produce excellent fast bowlers over the years and now they are doing it again. Waqar, however, is optimistic that more pacers will come up the ranks with cricket returning to the country.

“Fast bowling definitely regressed in the last 10-12 years as we were forced to play our home series in UAE where pitches offered very little assistance to the pacers. Even when I was the head coach we mostly relied on our spinners to win us games there,” he said while speaking to CricWick.

We have 7-8 young pacers now bowling 140 plus, says Waqar

Though the recent tours of England and New Zealand got cancelled controversially, Pakistan has played at home more often in the last couple of years. This has certainly given hope for the pacers in the country and Waqar Younis is happy to see a lot of youngsters coming through who can bowl at pace.

“There is certainly a revival of fast bowling in the country. We now have 7-8 young pacers who can bowl at 140 plus and pitches in Pakistan also are much suitable for them,” the 49-year-old added.

Waqar, meanwhile, also felt that the criticism of the young players is, at times, uncalled for. He urged the fans to stay patient with the players picked in the team and not to write them off soon. “I know we are very emotional when it comes to cricket but we should purely make our judgments on statistics rather than writing someone off after one bad performance.

“I have always welcomed constructive criticism as it helps you figure out your weaknesses and this is exactly what I told the young lot as well,” Waqar further added.