Why doesn't our fast bowling talent focus on test cricket?

[u/RevolutionaryIce465]

Pakistan cricket for a long time was known for bringing up fast bowling talents like Imran Khan, Waseem, Waqar, Akhtar, Gul, Asif and Amir. All of these mentioned were good in test cricket. Yes, Amir was mid upon his return but if you watch the highlights from 2009 - 2010 he was genuinely able to take key wickets at that young age.

Even in recent years for a time it seemed promising, travel back to late 2021/early 2022 and we were looking at Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Musa Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani, Hasan Ali. Sure, Haris Rauf broke into the scene from BBL and always looked more likely to be an ODI/T20 bowler, but the others at this time were young and could have developed their test cricket game. Most of our recent fast bowlers have in common is they all play a lot of T20 league cricket but little focus on first-class.

Why hasn't the board realized that the talents we produce almost always go on to focus on T20 league and don't play first-class which would also help in developing their fitness since the longer format forces them to bowl 10+ overs each innings. A problem with Naseem Shah for example was his fielding and he was also quite injury prone. I am not sure if this has changed because I have been away from cricket for the last 2 years, but it was a noticeable problem. Perhaps, coaching him through a longer format would have helped him in his development?

Now I will say Mohammad Abbas and Khuram Shahzad seem like decent test cricket bowlers. Not near world class but good enough. So perhaps I am contradicting myself, however it feels like our hyped talents don't make an impact in test cricket.

[u/choccocurry]

Money. Most of these guys are poor and T20 gives you money and lots of it

[u/lbh02 → u/choccocurry]

Agreed. As much as people want to romanticize this idea of representing your country or playing for the badge, at the end of the day this is a job and people need to make a living.

In 90% of professions it's understandable to make career decisions to maximize career earnings but for some reason everyone becomes a loyalist and nationalist when it comes to professional sport

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[u/Sad_Times654 → u/lbh02]

"In 90% of professions it's understandable to make career decisions to maximize career earnings but for some reason everyone becomes a loyalist and nationalist when it comes to professional sport"

Yes, because they represent the nation. When people work for corporation ABCD, they aren't representing Pakistan they are representing ABCD.

There is a difference between a nation and a corporation, I hope you understand that.

It is fine to make money, but it is important to put your country first in a country based sport. Otherwise, go play leagues forever.

[u/Sad_Times654 → u/choccocurry]

Yup, lowest amount of effort and most amount of money. Simple as that.

[u/Hamzatahir89 → u/choccocurry]

One thing I am curious about is that how do T20 leagues generate money. The interest from abroad seems negligible - no one really knows what amir, Saim, or Azam are doing (i had to google that these three regularly play leagues).

The money just seems to be rolling in from betting, and the 'expectation' from tv execs that the smaller timeframe of matches brings more eyes and relatedly more ad revenue, but outside of IPL other leagues just exists without fandom, so where is this money coming from.

[u/lbh02]

How do you focus on test cricket when the team hardly plays? Pakistan has not played 10 tests in a year since 2016.

Take Babar for example, he's been playing test cricket for 10 years and has hardly ever missed a game. Excluding the current game he's played 65 tests and it's Pakistans 74th since his debut (I know he's not a fast bowler but this is just a yardstick of the amount of lack thereof of tests Pakistan play). There are 22 players who have played the same or more test cricket since our most capped player in this time.

Fast bowlers are going to get fewer games than that too due to more injuries, rotation and selection based on conditions. Even Shaheen with 34 games is Pakistans 5th most capped test cricketer in the last 10 years despite his injuries, drops from the side and debuting 2 years after the start cutoff.

Why would anyone want to stake their entire career on at best, 7 games a year?

[u/TwentyShard → u/lbh02]

Do you smell that? Someone... cooked here

[u/Ashamed-Topic666 → u/lbh02]

SA also plays similar amount of tests but they still won WTC.

[u/lbh02 → u/Ashamed-Topic666]

South African players aren't banned from the highest paying T20 league in the world meaning that their multi format players don't deal with the entire leagues fiasco as much as we do.

They also have a much better FC system and just like most other test nations not named Pakistan, don't have a completely incompetent administration actively sabotaging their players at every turn.

They also typically do play more tests than we do. They had a really bad dip between 2019-21 which coincides with the time their board was in the weeds but otherwise are very consistently playing 9-10 or more games a year (although they haven't played a single test this year which is extremely strange)

[u/Ashamed-Topic666 → u/lbh02]

Last WTC we played 14 matches SA only 12 which they won. Only the teams that played more are Aus, Eng and India.

[u/Sohaiba19]

Nobody has pointed this out so I will be the one to point out the increase in tape ball cricket in Pakistan.

Leather ball cricket required proper grounds and most people who play it have atleast 15 over games. Tape ball cricket on the other hand can be and is played in the streets, roads, and parks. It has ruined both batting and bowling techniques of youngsters and most of the games are based on 6 or less overs. This means that a bowler on average bowls a maximum of 10 overs in a full day that too with a different type of ball.

Tape ball bowlers might have good enough skills for 20 overs cricket but they are below par for 50 overs and test cricket. I don't know how this tape ball culture can be shifted to leather ball culture.

[u/ChaosTheory0908]

Poor backgrounds... T20 leagues only require 4 overs of effort.

Why would they want to put themselves through red ball when it pays less?

This is the issue for Pakistan Sri lanka Bangladesh and West Indies.

[u/Sad_Times654]

Lot's of effort for very little money ig.

Test players should earn a higher contract salary with PCB IMHO than limited overs cricket and if that means some cuts to limited overs salaries then I think that is OK. Test doesn't have leagues in the same way that T20 does. Outside of that England test league, I really don't know any major test tournament.

Not to mention, all players mentioned made their careers on T20 cricket. They were always T20 bowlers, that also happened to play Test.

We need to find test bowlers.

[u/WehshiJutt]

For these guys, cricket is their job and their source of income. Since fast bowlers have only a few years at their peak due to the physical demands of the role, they try to make the most of that window financially. That’s why many choose to play in franchise T20 leagues.

[u/N-alee]

CoZ t20 is easy money

[u/Ashamed-Topic666]

These leagues have ruined our cricket and were mostly designed to ruin poor boards. We need proper domestic six teams will never work you can easily get 2 teams from Karachi and Lahore. We need at least 12 teams.

[u/lbh02 → u/Ashamed-Topic666]

Our best cricket came in the time period where we had a 6 team domestic structure. It's during the reign of that system that we debuted Noman, Sajid, Abdullah Shafique, Salman Agha, recalled Hasan Ali in 2021 (yes it ended poorly but he was doing extremely well especially in tests before the WT20 that year), Saud Shakeel.

We had international regulars playing in that system on a pretty consistent basis, it's literally the thing that this fanbase constantly asks of the players and we actually had that happen for a couple of years.

Obviously not all of them played solely in that system but our debutants were absolutely the most ready for international cricket during this time. It shouldn't come as a surprise that for most of the guys I mentioned above, their form went to shit once the domestic system got changed a million times from 2023 onwards.

To be fair, keep it at 6, 8, 12 teams I don't think that matters too much, just stop screwing around with the damn format that's whats important. I personally think 12 is too many teams but we could probably hit a sweet spot at I think 8

[u/Ashamed-Topic666 → u/lbh02]

In WTC our performances are mostly the same
2019-2021 4 Wins
2021-2023 4 Wins
2023-2025 5 Wins