Pakistan is known in the cricketing world as a land fertile for producing pace bowlers. It is a surprise since the majority of the tracks that greet the fast men across the country are more or less barren.

Fazal Mahmood, Mahmood Hussain, Khan Mohammad, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed, Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul are household names in Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta. There have been several others, the second-stringers, who made sure Pakistan didn't have any crack in their pace armoury. Mohammad Zahid, one may recall, was mighty quick but couldn't survive the physical exertion of top-level cricket and Mohammad Sami had added speed sans astuteness to read the batsman's mind. The side has won many games, among them 1992 and 2009 world crowns, mainly on the back of the pacemen's heroics, who often had to defend fairly low totals.

Currently, our pace bowling stock comprises Umar Gul, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir besides a few more who are in their bowling infancy. Unfortunately, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – two very prominent pacers to have emerged to represent the country in recent times – sullied themselves.

Keep in mind Gul has been out of action for a while now, and so in a very interesting scenario the 'currently operational and deployed' fast bowlers are all left-arm campaigners – very rare indeed for any outfit, let alone Pakistan. Rahat Ali, who made his Test debut in South Africa earlier this year, was also a southpaw. Though, during the last few years, there have been right-arm rookies like Aizaz Cheema, Asad Ali and Ehsan Adil, none of them exhibited any explicit sign of being an out-and-out fast bowler capable of penetrating opposition lineups.

Mohammad Talha, one reckons, is an exception here. The gangly bowler – regarded as significantly faster than his current pace colleagues -- has just a solitary Test under his belt which came against Sri Lanka in 2009. He was earmarked as a hot prospect after putting in an impressive performance for a PCB XI that took on England before the Test series in UAE in 2012 but an injury put him out of contention and he's been forgotten since.

While the big Irfan has been splendidly spearheading our pace attack of late alongside an ever-improving Junaid, Tanvir or Wahab complete the battery in most of the games, depending upon the strength of the opposition and the playing conditions. Though the men all have their own peculiar bowling actions and preferred modes of operation, there is a sameness about this left-arm contingent that is employed by Pakistan in both Tests in ODIs. A very key element missing from their stock is the ability to bring to ball back into the right-handed batsmen.

The world has witnessed that Wasim's lethality would double with Waqar in company, together they would topple even a fully loaded world-class batting line-up. They were maestros of swing and seam bowling, and reverse swing was their hallmark. They both attacked with different angles and if Wasim was keeping the batsmen guessing as to which way the ball would swing, Waqar was going through their defences with sheer pace.

A magician in off-spin maestro Saeed Ajmal, the fast leg breaks of Shahid Afridi, Irfan's steepling bounce and Junaid's perseverance; it seems all that is missing is an out-and-out right-arm quick. Putting aside the batting woes, it was perhaps the one element that seemed lacking in Pakistan's offering with the ball against South Africa.

So where are the right armers?

Former chief selector and ex-Test cricketer Salahuddin Ahmed Sallu underlines a distinct reason for this dearth of high-quality right-armers among our current crop of pacers.

“Look, Wasim has been spending time with several upcoming Pakistan pace bowlers for quite some time now at various camps across the country, including national camps. And so I feel because he has been very much involved with our young pace guns, he is widely considered by a majority of our present youth as the leading fast bowling role model; they are very impressed with his outstanding bowling skills we all know. And therefore, I think it is a reason we are witnessing a significant number of left-arm pace bowlers in our domestic circuit,” Sallu said.

Will a right-armer really make a difference?

“A right-armer bowling over the wicket to a left-handed batsman gives an advantage to the bowler who moves the ball away from the batsman; whereas a left-armer operating over the wicket brings the ball in for right-handers, a natural angle for out-swinger. Aaqib Javed, though not a very quick right-armer, was a good exponent of the out-swinger, Sallu added.

The out-swing from a right-arm bowler, as Dale Steyn has exhibited and Mohammad Hafeez will testify, is perhaps the most difficult to contend with for a right-handed batsman.

Of reverse swing, Sallu said: “Right-armers with a bit of speed also employ reverse swing to good effect. I remember when Waqar was our national coach, Gul brought considerable improvement in his reverse swinging deliveries in a series against Sri Lanka.”

Sarfraz Nawaz, one of the most effective users of reverse swing, blames the scarcity of heavyweight right-arm pacemen, on Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) coaching staff which he believes didn't let rising pacers settle.

“The approach of PCB coaching staff during the last few years has not encouraged several talented pace bowlers to develop for national duty as chop-and-change policy continues,” he stated. “Timely selection of bright prospects is mandatory if Pakistan cricket is to improve. And above all selection must be only and only merit-based.

“Bowlers like Mohammad Talha, Anwar Ali, Ehsan and Rahat [left-armer] have been waiting in the wings for some time now, waiting for proper chances.

“There is a strong case for Talha,” Sarfraz emphasised. “I have seen him operating, his speed touches 150kph and I think he is the fastest in the current lot, yet he has not been given any worthwhile chance to show his mettle by the selectors. He is being wasted which is very unfortunate,” he lamented.

Sarfraz, who himself was a right-arm paceman boasting sharp swing, maintained that batsmen were finding it easy to handle Pakistan's contemporary set of fast bowlers – all left-armers – because he reckoned the attack lacked variety in length. “A robust, promising right-armer can add variety to our pace attack which will make easier for the likes of Irfan and Junaid, who have been bowling exceptionally, to unfaze batsmen,” he underlined.