Pakistan grooming another 95+ mph pacer

Pakistan is one country which always had a great contingent of fast bowlers no matter how good or bad they were in the other departments. From the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis terrorizing the batsmen in the early 90s to Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sami ripping apart the best lineups across the world, they faced a problem of plenty with the fast bowlers but there never was any dearth.

Pakistan Super League has been a major boost for their country’s cricket after all the cricketing nations decided not to tour them. PSL has managed to bring some bright talents onto the elite level like Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali and various others. Each franchise is conducting a talent hunt program and they found that a lot of cricketers are able to quick without much fuss.

Around 35,000 aspiring cricketers appeared for trials during the first phase of the Jazz Rising Stars program at Kashmir. Apparently, a total of 17 players were filtered and former Pakistan bowling Coach and the Lahore Qalandars’ Director Cricket Operations Aqib Javed spotted that these bowlers were constantly bowling over 144 km/h and he was most impressed with a bowler named Salman Irshad.

I have set a target for him to increase his speed to 150 kph

Aqib Javed mentioned that he has set a target to nurture the young fast bowler and will help him increase his speed to 150 km/h. He also stated that the angle which he creates to bowl is absolutely brilliant and he can be quite a lethal weapon in the death overs. Salman, on the other hand, has his eyes on the PSL next year and he feels he can make his country proud.

“I bowled at 144 kph after which Aaqib bhai announced that he would take me to the Lahore Qalandars camp and also make me play in the PSL. I will make Azad Kashmir and Pakistan proud,” he said.

Interestingly, the same program also spotted a youngster named Yasir Jan, who can bowl above 140 clicks with both his hands. He is currently at the MCC Academy in Lord’s and there has been a lot of talk about him in the local media in Pakistan.