Hasnain Is Back!

The young pacer bowling action has been declared legal and he is allowed to bowl in international cricket

Pakistan’s promising fast-bowler Mohammad Hasnain has been cleared to bowl on the international stage again after he rectified his bowling action.

The verdict was given by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after a fresh assessment where the 22-year-old bowled three overs under the supervision and his elbow extension was found to be within the permissible limit, 12-13 degrees, which was previously 17-24 degrees.

Under ICC rules, an illegal bowling action is one in which the bowler’s elbow extension exceeds 15 degrees.

The right-arm pacer’s bowling action was questioned in January during his stint in Australia’s Big Bash League, where he was representing Sydney Thunders.

He was impressive in his BBL debut as he took three wickets for 20 runs, including a triple-wicket maiden against Adelaide Strikers.

In his last game in the BBL, which was against Sydney Sixers, the opponent captain Moises Henriques had accused him of chucking, saying ‘ nice throw, mate’.

After this incident, his bowling action came under scrutiny and was tested at the ICC-accredited testing laboratory at the Lahore University of Management Sciences on January 21 and it was found illegal.

The ICC barred the young talented Pakistani pacer from bowling in international cricket; however, he was allowed to bowl in the domestic arena.

Hasnain was representing the Pakistan Super League franchise Quetta Gladiators when the verdict was announced. The PCB could have allowed him to feature the 20-overs showpiece, instead, they decided to pull him out to focus on remodelling his action.

The PCB first considered sending him to an independent consultant to fix his bowling action and then decided against it.

The task was assigned to Umar Rasheed to work with him at the Lahore’s High-Performance Centre.

In a span of around six months, Rasheed worked hard with the young man and rectified his bowling action to fit the standards defined by the international cricketing body.

According to experts, it was found in an early assessment that Hasnain was rotating his arm to swing the ball.

The process was inconsistent, which caused a jerk. Moreover, Hasnain is known for bowling quick and has clocked up to 155 kilometres per hour. So, to bowl quicker deliveries, his landing was wild, making his alignment go off.

As per the reports, it is understood that the core of his new bowling action structure is the same, while the experts have worked only on his wrist, arm rotation and landing to make his action more consistent and repeatable.

Rasheed has specifically worked hard on his alignment, for which Hasnain bowled over 5,000 balls and practised shadow bowling.

 Difficult path?

Before the 22-year-old pacer was banned, he was on his way to becoming an integral part of Pakistan’s white-ball squad, especially due to the absence of experienced Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir.

In his short journey with the national side so far, he has played eight ODIs and 18 T20Is, taking 12 and 17 wickets in each format, respectively.

Since Hasnain’s suspension, he has not played any competitive cricket. However, his coach is certain that he will be as effective with the new action as he was before.

The man who hails from Karachi is not the first Pakistan bowler who has faced this hardship. Before Hasnain, the magician Saeed Ajmal, veteran all-rounders Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, the fastest bowler to ever grace the game of cricket Shoaib Akhtar and talented pacer Shabbir Ahmed also suffered the same fate during their playing days

Though the rest of them were able to make a successful comeback in international cricket, Saeed Ajmal and Shabbir Ahmed lost their shine after remodelling their actions.

According to the former lanky fast-bowler, Ahmed, he believes this illegal action saga can be career threatening as he himself could not produce similar performances with his new action.

“This [reported action] puts a full stop in players’ careers as they go through pain and sorrow,” Shabbir had said while talking to Bol News. “A bowler spends all their life with the same routine and when I was handed a ban, I felt like my life was falling apart and that I had lost the passion and love for the game.”

The former right-arm pacer represented Pakistan in 10 Tests, 32 ODIs and a single T20I. The 6 ft 5 inches tall bowler bagged 104 wickets in his international career, spanning from 2003 to 2007.

He was a special talent as he managed to become the joint-fastest bowler to reach 50 Test wickets. He achieved the feat in 10 Tests, the same as his countryman Waqar Younis.

It looked like the then 29-year-old fast bowler had a bright future. However, his progress suddenly came to a halt when during Pakistan’s tour of England in 2005 (November), he was called out for having a suspected bowling action.

Though the pacer managed to fix his actions on multiple occasions, he could not bowl those fiery deliveries again. He became a mediocre bowler at best.

“Many things changed. My bowling speed reduced, the momentum with which I used to bowl got diminished,” he mentioned. “I was never satisfied with my performance once my action was reported. I also took a five-wicket haul but I wasn’t happy. A fast-bowler try to bag a wicket by threatening a batter but the bite was not there afterwards. The batters were facing me freely and I could not scare them anymore.”

Ahmed believed that Hasnain may also face such kinds of difficulties and he would have to be nurtured carefully by the coaches. Moreover, the young man has to be brave and courageous to tackle these challenges.

“He will face problems in bowling with the same speed as mentally it is quite tough. However, he has to be courageous to rise from this dire situation,” he maintained.

Hundred contract

Though Hasnain was barred from international cricket for having a dubious bowling action and it is yet to be seen how he fares with his remodelled style, he has already been signed by Oval Invincibles in the Hundred.

The signing speaks volumes about the bowler’s capability and how hot a commodity he is in the cricket fraternity.

Hasnain is one of the tournament’s new ‘wildcard’ signings, with teams being granted a fourth overseas slot in their squads during the second season of the pioneering 100 balls per side event.

‘Wildcards’ in the men’s draw will be paid £50,000 ($63,000), with their female equivalents earning £15,000 ($19,000) in a competition where eight specially created sides, rather than the traditional 18 English first-class counties, field both men’s and women’s teams.

After getting to know that has been signed by the English franchise, Hasnain is over the moon and maintained that he cannot wait to join the team.

“I’m overjoyed to be joining Oval Invincibles,” he said in a statement. “The Hundred looked like great fun last year and I can’t wait to get involved.

The talented bowler from Pakistan is looking forward to sharing the dressing room with the West Indies’ modern-day genius Sunil Narine, England’s dynamic opening batter Jason Roy and brothers Sam and Tom Curran.

“The opportunity to play alongside stars like Sunil Narine, Jason Roy and the Curran brothers (Sam and Tom) is hugely exciting. I’m really looking forward to getting back out on the field again,” he stated.

Furthermore, Australia trio Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner and Daniel Sams will play for London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Trent Rockets respectively, with veteran South Africa spinner Imran Tahir re-signing for a second spell with Birmingham Phoenix.

Elyse Villani (Trent Rockets) is among four Australian women who have agreed to wildcard deals.

New Zealand great Suzie Bates will bolster the squad of inaugural women’s winners Oval Invincibles, with India’s Deepti Sharma joining Birmingham Phoenix.