KARACHI: Pakistan may soon have a new face in their pace-bowling armoury for next month’s three-match Test series against the West Indies with Mohammad Abbas being hotly tipped to make the 16-member squad, which is likely to be announced in the middle of next week.

The national selection committee — headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq with Tauseef Ahmed, Wajahatullah Wasti and Wasim Haider as members — is scheduled to assemble in Lahore on Monday to discuss the make-up of the Test party.

Abbas, a 27-year-old from village in the Sialkot district, has been the star bowler over the past two first-class seasons in which he had 132 wickets, including a rich haul of 71 in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship.

Unassuming and shy in character, Abbas is quite passionate about cricket and the facet of pace bowling. For a man who idolizes the retired Australian legend Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif, the veteran seamer who served a long ban for his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal that rocked Pakistan during the 2010 Lord’s Test against England, Abbas believes he is ready for international cricket.

“By grace of Allah, I have been performing exceptionally over the past few seasons. The efforts of working hard are reaping the desired rewards. I have come through the past few seasons with performances to show,” Abbas said while exclusively talking to Dawn on Saturday. “Obviously, there was no turning back after taking 61 wickets in the previous [2015-16] first-class season. Having set the bench mark, I wanted to do better this season and the incentive I got was 71 wickets and a second straight award of being declared the best bowler of the championship.”

Abbas considers himself extremely lucky to have Asif playing alongside him. “I am very fortunate that Asif also plays for Sialkot. In my view, he is the best seamer I have come across in my life. Being primarily a seam bowler, I have learnt a lot from him.

“In fact, most people don’t know that Asif and I hold the ball in the same position at the time of delivery. You can see visible marks of wear and tear on the index and middle fingers of our bowling hands. This is because to bowl seam up, one has got to hold the ball in a conventional way to generate the swerve off the pitch.

“I also get the ball to swing when the conditions are ideal but most of the time, I rely on seam movement. One cannot succeed if you are not able to read the pitch.”

Abbas revealed that it was dream come true for him to be playing for the first time against Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq when the duo played against each other in the semi-final of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II Cricket Tournament here at the National Stadium earlier in the week. And although Misbah-led Faisalabad defeated Sialkot by 32 runs to qualify for the final against Multan, Abbas has a cause to remember the fixture, even though it was not classified first-class.

“I still think as if I was bowling to Misbah bhai in a trance. On day one, the pitch aided seam bowling and I got seven wickets, including that of Misbah bhai when I trapped him LBW. But the icing on the cake was to get Misbah bhai in the second innings when I managed to get one delivery zipped through from outside the off stump to bowl him,” Abbas said.

Abbas further said the experience of training alongside some of the stars was worth when he was among 31 probables invited for the national camp for the T20 and ODI segments of the West Indies tour.

“It was simply wonderful. Mickey Arthur [Pakistan head coach] offered words of encouragement when he saw him at the camp and told me to keep working hard. The fitness tests were great and I came through them well,” Abbas revealed. “The senior players were very supportive as well with good advice. Sarfraz, Shoaib Malik, Hafeez, Kamran Akmal all were very, very good to me. They made me feel at home throughout the duration of the camp.”

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2017