Former Pakistani medium-pacer Mohammad Asif has claimed that his predecessor Waqar Younis used to cheat with the ball to do reverse swing during his playing days. At the same time, Asif has also alleged that Waqar, who currently serves as Pak national team’s bowling coach has never given back to the game by not developing a single bowler who has mastered the art of reverse swing.
While speaking to Ary News, Asif went on to say that Younis used to cheat with the ball to do reverse swing and that the former Pakistan skipper did not know how to ball with the new ball during most of his career. The 38-year-old then claimed that Waqar Younis learned a bit about bowling with the new ball during the twilight of his illustrious career.
“You know him as a master of reverse swing but he never developed a single bowler who could bowl a perfect reverse swing”, Mohammad Asif added.
In his illustrious cricketing career that lasted for a one-and-a-half decade, Waqar Younis has represented Pakistan in 87 Tests and 262 One Day Internationals from 1989 to 2003 where he has registered 373, and, 416 scalps respectively. He had represented Pakistan in three World Cups (1996, 1999 & 2003) and in fact, had led the Men In Green in the 2003 edition where they were knocked out in the group stages. He was the team’s head coach during the 2011 edition of the quadrennial event where Pakistan had made the semis but crashed out after a 29-run loss at the hands of arch-rivals as well as eventual champions India.
As of 2012, the ‘Burewala Express’ holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days). The Vehari cricketer’s trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed and together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the world’s most feared bowling attacks.
The tearaway fast bowler has the best strike rate after Proteas pace sensation Dale Steyn for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets and to date remains the youngest bowler to take 400 wickets in ODI cricket.
