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England captain Alastair Cook is using the media to try to rattle Pakistan gun Mohammad Amir as he makes his long-awaited return from a cheating ban next week. Cook seems to fear the pain Amir can inflict on himself and his teammates.
The opener has good reason to hope Amir can be distracted – the English skipper struggles badly against left arm quicks, as I’ll detail later. And Amir is the best left arm paceman I’ve seen since Wasim Akram, who rates among the top ten cricketers in history.
The 24-year-old Pakistani will front up at Lord’s next week for his first Test match since he was banned for five years. It was at the same ground, six years ago, that Amir deliberately bowled no balls as part of a spot fixing scandal.
Cook repeatedly has stated that he does not believe the likes of Amir should be allowed to play international cricket.
Again and again he has emphasised in interviews his contempt for players who are caught cheating, saying that they should be banned for life. Then on Monday he warned Amir to expect to be abused by the English fans.
“When you do something like that (spot fixing) there are more consequences than just the punishment,” Cook told the media. There’s little doubt that he’s trying to heap pressure on Amir, who ran amok against England at just 18 years of age back in 2010.
While spot fixing is what will long be remembered about that series, Amir’s bowling was phenomenal. At that stage, Amir was so quick, so skilful and so clever for a teenager that it boggled the mind.
I was convinced we were witnessing the birth of a cricketer who could equal the feats of Akram and quickly become the world’s best bowler. Australian fans were left with their jaws bouncing off the ground when Amir made their batsmen look foolish in 2009 and 2010.
He arrived in Australia as a 17-year-old who somehow was able to swing the ball both ways at 150km/h with great control. At high school age Amir owned a skill set usually found only in champion Test bowlers aged well into their 20s.
First he took a five-for against Australia in the 2009 Boxing Day Test.
Then the following year in England he was almost unplayable so late was he swinging the ball.
Just after he finished tormenting Australia he sliced through the England batting order in that fateful series. Amir snared 19 wickets at an average of 18 in the four Tests against England, and tied Cook in knots time and again.
The English captain has a glaring weakness against left arm paceman. No bowler in his career has dismissed Cook more often than former Australian left armer Mitchell Johnson, against whom he averaged only 26 with the bat while losing his wicket nine times.
Across his Test career, Cook has been dismissed 25 times at an average of 20 against the left arm fast bowling of Johnson, Amir, Mitchell Starc, Zaheer Zhan, Neil Wagner and Chaminda Vaas.
An old school opener, he seeks to leave as many deliveries as possible while he gets set. Cook has become the master of the leave to right hand bowlers but battles against the more alien angle of left armers, often fending at deliveries outside off which he should leave alone.
In this regard, Amir is torn straight from Cook’s nightmares. And with a weak top order otherwise occupied by the unproven pair of Alex Hales and James Vince, England desperately need Cook to flourish against Pakistan.
It will be interesting to see whether England have the courage to again request green seaming wickets like those on which they crushed Sri Lanka recently and Australia last year.
They may be spooked by the potency of Amir and firebrand Wahab Riaz, another talented left armer capable of swerving the ball at 150km/h. Complemented by arguably Test cricket’s finest spin bowler, leggie Yasir Shah, Pakistan have a lethal attack.
Their batting line-up also has been intimidating over the past two years, and laid waste to the Australians in the UAE two years ago.
Veterans Younis Khan and Misbah Ul-Haq are champions of the Test format. Experienced opener Mohammad Hafeez has made 1128 runs at 75 in his past nine Tests. First drop Azhar Ali and number six Asad Shafiq are vastly underrated Test cricketers who both average 43 with the bat, from 45 and 41 matches respectively.
Topping off this robust unit is the wildcard Sarfraz Ahmed, who is a wrecking ball with the blade at seven, with an average of 46 and a blistering strike rate of 76. The conditions in England, however, will require a major adjustment from the Pakistani batsmen, who have not played a Test match outside of Asia in almost three years.
Their run hoarding has undoubtedly been assisted by the ultra-flat decks of the UAE. It will be an entirely different challenge on a seaming deck against Stuart Broad, the English superstar who is poised to take Dale Steyn’s crown as Test cricket’s best bowler.
How the Pakistani batsmen fare against England’s strong pace attack will decide this series. But the greatest fascination will come from watching Amir’s return to the biggest stage. By series end I think Cook will regret having rattled his cage.