Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas shot to fame with a flying start to his Test career but lost his way thereafter, representing his national side for the last time in 2021. Here are the whereabouts of the out-of-favour seamer.
Despite a short Test career, Abbas' numbers – 90 wickets at 23.02 – are impressive in the format. His first-class numbers are even more astonishing, with 695 scalps at 21. Yet his career in the whites for Pakistan has only been restricted to 25 Tests.
Pakistan recently succumbed to a demoralising 0-2 whitewash against Bangladesh, in which their pace attack, historically hailed as among the best, was found wanting. The hosts opted to rest two of their mainstays, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, after the pair had a lacklustre outing in the first match.
With Pakistan’s pace heritage visibly in decline, one might wonder what went wrong for Abbas to not represent Pakistan since 2021 despite possessing such impressive overall numbers.
A late bloomer
Abbas had to endure five tough years in domestic cricket before finding his rhythm in 2014. He returned with 170 wickets in the following three seasons, getting on the national selectors’ radar. At 27, he made his Test debut against West Indies in 2017, returning with 15 wickets at 19.20, the joint second-highest in the series.
He was never an out-and-out quick. At best, he was a medium pacer. However, his discipline in line and length gave him an edge, making him extremely hard to score off. When the conditions were conducive to swing and seam, his bowling was poetry in slow motion.
2018 was Abbas’ breakthrough year, with him recording 27 wickets in successive series against England and Australia. After 10 Tests, Abbas had 59 wickets at an outstanding average of 15.64. Imran Khan is the only Pakistan bowler to have a better average over a longer period.
Couldn’t capitalise on the flying start
By the end of Pakistan's tour of South Africa in January 2019, Abbas had picked up 66 wickets at 18.16 in 14 Tests. Since then the figures dipped, as he added only 24 wickets more at 34.45 and a strike-rate of 87.4.
After the highs of 2018, a relative dip in form resulted in his omission from Pakistan’s central contract and eventually from the side in 2021.
Abbas feels his injury, besides lack of practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushed him into a downward spiral.
"I really had a great start to my career but unfortunately I got a shoulder injury," Abbas told ESPNcricinfo. "When you touch a peak and have a sudden fall you obviously need time to regain yourself.
"I did struggle after my return but then, in the second stint of my career, I lost the experienced bowlers at another end. Things started to break away. New management came in and I got to bowl with a fresh bowler, with Shaheen Afridi at his early stage. Musa [Khan], [Usman] Shinwari, Naseem Shah, they all were inexperienced and Yasir [Shah] also stopped taking wickets so it all comes down to me alone as a senior bowler."
In 2022, Abbas was criticised by Pakistan’s physio for his training methods and drop in pace. He fought back with 50 wickets in 12 County Championship matches and 18 in the 2022 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Abbas was still overlooked, with Pakistan opting for Mohammad Ali for the home Tests against England and New Zealand. Since then, he has fallen out of national contention, and given he’s 34 now, a potential comeback is highly unlikely. Despite the international snub, he has become more than a familiar name for Hamshire in county cricket, taking 162 wickets at under 20.
When he hangs up his boots, Abbas will look back at his short and crisp international career with pride, but there would always be a case of “what could have been” had he not lost his form at the wrong time.
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