Published: Jan 19, 2012, 10:05 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 19, 2012, 10:05 AM (IST)
Ajmal’s pre-series assertion that he had developed a new delivery — the ‘Teesra’ — in part led to the confusion that unfolded in the middle in the England first innings © AFP
By David Green
This may seem a strange thing for an England supporter to write the day after a bowler has just taken seven for 55 against our country, but it just confirmed that we’re big fans of Saeed Ajmal here at The Reverse Sweep.
Ajmal adds a splash of colour to an otherwise obdurate and unusually attritional Pakistan side led by the calm and composed Misbah-ul-Haq.
Off the pitch, the ebullient Ajmal understands theatre – one only needs to view his post-match interviews to see that.
He also knows that he has got into the heads of the England batsmen, who simply cannot pick him. As such his pre-series assertion that he had developed a new delivery – the ‘Teesra’ – in part led to the confusion that unfolded in the middle in theEngland first innings. Shane Warne, who has invented more deliveries than the Royal Mail, would be proud.
Ajmal is a late-developer – he only made his Test debut at the age of 31. But he has proved a quick learner on the biggest stage – perhaps that understanding of theatre – and already has 90 wickets in seventeen and a half Tests at a decent average of 28.
Those figures are impressive enough, but since Misbah took over the captaincy in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in October 2010 and he finally became a first-choice pick, Ajmal has got even better with 60 wickets in nine and a half Tests at 24, with an economy rate of 2.5 and strike rate of a wicket every 57 balls.
He was the leading wicket-taker both in Tests and international cricket in 2010, and if he continues to bamboozle the No 1 side is likely to usurp Graeme Swann as the best spinner on the planet come the end of the series.
Suggestions that his action is suspect seem like sour grapes to us and thankfully have not been backed up – in public at least – from the England camp. Ajmal is just a damn good bowler who for the England batsmen at least seems impossible to read – an anomaly in this digital age.
Let’s hope that Ajmal continues to add an unpredictable splash of colour in the spectacle of Test cricket. With Misbah, Younis Khan and now Ajmal all having been bestowed with hero status here at The Reverse Sweep, Pakistan are rapidly infiltrating our minds. That’s mastery of vulcan mind tricks that we can also add to Ajmal’s arsenal.
(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also @TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfill his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)
