When it comes to fast bowling, Pakistan has been ruling the roost in world cricket ever since the country earned Test status in 1952. It did not take long for Pakistan’s pacers such as Khan Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood to leave a mark in international cricket in the early days.

But it was in the 1980s and ’90s when our pacers absolutely tormented the opponents’ batting lineups. Such was the class and aura of the two Ws, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, that Geoffrey Boycott, who never minced words while voicing his opinion, came to their defense during the 1992 tour of England when both bowlers were being accused of ball tampering. He said: “On present form, Waqar and Wasim would bowl out the England team with an orange.”

During these two decades, when our pace battery was as strong as an ox, there were a few lesser known pacers who also had the honour of representing Pakistan. Among them are numerous names such Rashid Khan, Jalal-ud-din, Mohsin Kamal, Zakir Khan, Mohammad Akram, Aamir Nazeer, Fazl-e-Akbar and Kabir Khan who donned the green cap in 10 Tests or less.

Not all Pakistani pace merchants hit fame. Here are some who faded away without blooming

Let’s take a look at the bowlers who made their debuts in the ’80s and ’90s and played in the shadow of Imran, Wasim or Waqar at some point in time in their fugacious Test careers.

Tahir NaqQash

Before the start of the home series against the visiting Sri Lankan team in 1982, there was a group of 10 players who revolted against their captain Javed Miandad. This revolt and the eventual ban on those players paved the way for four youngsters — Saleem Malik, Saleem Yousaf, Rashid Khan and Tahir Naqqash — to make their debuts at the National Stadium Karachi.

Tahir, a right arm medium-fast, at times nippy, bowler performed decently in his first Test with figures of five wickets for 117 runs. The ‘rebels’ were allowed to join the team before the third Test in Lahore. Tahir was retained for this match and he opened the bowling with Imran Khan and ended up taking seven wickets in the three-match series while bowling on docile Pakistani pitches.

Imran Khan took over the reins of captaincy from Javed Miandad before the England tour in 1982 and the newly-appointed captain retained Tahir in the team for the tour and also the home series against the Australians played in Sept-Oct 1982. Tahir was given a fair share of matches to prove his mettle but his Test performance left a lot to be desired. He was dropped from the team after his dismal performance in the Perth Test against Australia in November ’83.

In 14 months’ time he made a comeback but only for his last appearance in the Dunedin Test against New Zealand in 1985. His career ended with only 34 wickets in 15 Test matches, out of which he was able to play only four Tests outside the subcontinent.

Azeem Hafeez

Azeem Hafeez made it to the Pakistan team primarily due to Imran Khan’s injury when the fast bowler was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the shin in February 1983. Azeem made his Test debut against India at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 1983. His first Test scalp was the then Indian captain and all-rounder Kapil Dev.

It wasn’t just Azeem’s bowling but also his small disability which got him a lot of attention in India. Azeem, a left arm fast bowler only had two fingers and a thumb in his right hand. But he didn’t let his disability stop him from fulfilling his dream of playing cricket for his country. Though fielding and batting remained nothing short of a struggle for him in his short international career, this tall rangy man handled every situation bravely.

After almost one-and-a-half years of drudgery when he finally started to cement his place in the team, a lanky 17-year-old left-arm fast bowler named Wasim Akram emerged to make his debut and play second fiddle to Azeem in his second Test against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland in January 1985. Of course the name later became synonymous with left arm fast bowling. But who would’ve thought then that Wasim’s inclusion in the Pakistan team would bring about a premature end to Azeem’s career, which looked rather promising at that point in time. The third Test played at Carisbrook, Dunedin proved to be his last. It was in the same Test that Wasim bagged his first 10-wicket haul.

Azeem’s best bowling figures are six wickets for 46 runs against India in Lahore in the ’84 home series. He finished his career with 63 wickets in 18 Tests out of which he played 10 matches on Pakistani and Indian pitches. And he has four ‘fifers’ to his name.

Saleem Jaffar

Unfortunately, his ‘claim to fame’ was his alleged role in an 18-run defeat in the 1987 World Cup semi-final against Australia. Jaffar bowled the last over of the first innings and conceded 18 runs which meant that the naive fans had someone to put the blame on just because the margin of defeat was by an equal number of runs.

The left-arm fast medium bowler announced his arrival on the first class level by taking five wickets for 11 runs in his debut match in the first-class season of 1983-84. But it was his performance in the 1985-86 season when he made the selectors take notice by taking 80 first class wickets in a season.

His first-ever Test dismissal was the swashbuckling Richie Richardson at the National Stadium Karachi in the 1986 series against the West Indies. Lady luck was unkind to Jaffar: he played 11 out of 14 of his Test matches in the subcontinent and has 36 Test scalps to his name. His misery didn’t end there. In his short international career he played four Tests at the ‘bowler’s graveyard’ Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad.

When our pace battery was as strong as an ox, there were a few lesser known pacers who also had the honour of representing Pakistan. Among them are numerous names such Rashid Khan, Jalal-ud-din, Mohsin Kamal, Zakir Khan, Mohammad Akram, Aamir Nazeer, Fazl-e-Akbar and Kabir Khan who donned the green cap in 10 Tests or less.

Jaffar is perhaps the only recognised Pakistani bowler who got picked for his bowling but did not bowl a single ball in a Test match played on a prodigiously spinning track in Bangalore against India in 1987. His career dissipated after his last Test against Sri Lanka at the Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad on January 2, 1992. His best bowling in an innings was against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve, Wellington in 1989 when he took five wickets for 40 runs.

Ata-ur-Rehman

In his short-lived international career Ata-ur-Rehman made headlines but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons and that, too, after getting axed from the Pakistan team. The demise of his career had more to do with being a character in the infamous Pakistan cricket stories generating outside the ground than on the field, in the mid 1990s.

One man’s loss is another man’s gain. Wasim Akram was ruled out due to shin injury just before the start of the first Test in the 1992 England-Pakistan series and rookie Rehman was included in the playing eleven. On June 4, 1992, Rehman was one of the three Test debutants at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The other two names who received the green cap on that day were Inzamam-ul-Haq and Aamir Sohail, who later became stalwarts of Pakistan cricket.

Rehman’s performance in his first-ever outing in Test cricket was more than satisfactory. He took three wickets for 69 runs at an impressive economy rate of 3.83, which was better than his fellow fast bowlers Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed. His first Test dismissal was Alec Stewart, who was the only English batsman to give a tough time to the Pakistani pacers in that series.

If compared to other bowlers in this piece, Rehman was fortunate to play nine out of 13 of his Tests in more conducive bowling conditions in England, West Indies and New Zealand. But his record suggests that he wasn’t able to take full advantage of this. He took 31 wickets in 13 Test matches. Incidentally, just like his debut Test, he played his last Test in England at Headingley, Leeds in August 1996.

Shahid Nazir

Shahid Nazir made his debut against the touring Zimbabwe cricket team at the Sheikhupura Stadium in 1996. He didn’t have to wait long for his first Test scalp, and had Zimbabwe’s skipper Alistair Cambell leg before wicket when he was batting on eight runs. Nazir made an impressive debut with seven wickets in the match. But Wasim Akram’s heroics with the bat stole the young man’s thunder; Akram made 257 not out to bail out Pakistan in that match.

Nazir was never considered as an express pace bowler, he mostly relied on an off-side line and out-swingers, perhaps he modeled himself after Aaqib Javed. So with the exception of his debut Test, Nazir’s performance was paltry, to say the least. He was very fortunate to play 15 Tests for Pakistan in which he only got 36 wickets.

One may argue that out of those 15 Tests he played 11 matches in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. That said, in the 2007 Centurion Test in South Africa, Nazir conceded 109 runs in 23 overs but wasn’t able to dismiss even a single batsman. Not surprisingly, in the next Test in Cape Town he made his last Test appearance and thereon was lost to oblivion.

The writer tweets @CaughtAtPoint

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 30th, 2017