Mohammad Amir – It was 2009 when another left-arm fast bowler burst onto the scene from Pakistan Cricket. Pace, Bounce and Swing Mohammed Amir had everything in his repertoire to make the batsman dance on his tunes. Within the span of quick time this young left-arm fast bowler has received the ovations of next Wasim Akram or even something exceptional. Pakistan has a long history of producing world-class fast bowlers and Mohammad Amir was another one into the column. Amir bowling over 145 kmph on the regular basis was the sight to behold with swinging the ball towards the batsman was a complete rare thing in cricket – very few bowlers have this art of swing bowling. In an era of batting friendly conditions which are more friendly to a batsman the speedstar Mohammad Amir has replaced the rivalry of batsman vs batsman to genuine left-arm fast bowling vs batman battle. For serious cricket aficionados like me the feeling of Renaissance of fast bowling was a completely different thing.
Without having much first-class experience, Amir has received the call from the National team to play for Pakistan in the ICC T20l World Cup 2009 at the age of just 17 years. Throughout the tournament it was witnessed the special talent has arrived and ended up picking up 6 wickets in the tournament and made the Pakistan Champions of ICC T20 World Cup. Soon after Amir was selected for the tour of Sri Lanka in the white-ball cricket and red-ball cricket where picked up 6 wickets in three red-ball cricket games and 9 wickets in the white-ball cricket games. The subcontinent pitches are not good for fast bowlers but Mohammad Amir in his own style proved it wrong. The Pakistan tour of Australia which had unleashed the Mohammad Amir senses of Apex Level.
The next year 2010, Pakistan team played against Australia in England (who hosted the series) Where Mohammad Amir has picked up 11 wickets in 2 test matches to draw the test series by 1-1 after trailing behind in the series. Everything was good for Mohammad Amir until the series against England the fame he has achieved was destroyed by the sword of greed by his own teammates. A couple of unexpected No-balls during the fourth test match against England in 2010 from Mohammad Amir. England was 102/7 in the first innings and still they have won the match by 225 runs and an innings. Amir has picked up 6 wickets in that test match.
Here are words from former great Michael Holding about the Mohammad Amir about his unprofessional behaviour on the cricket field:
Later on it was found that the no-balls bowled by Mohammad Amir was the part of spot-fixing under which he was found accused went into the shambles of dark times for six years without the part of Cricket anymore. A child prodigy into the complete waste of talent by his own teammates would be the better tagline to describe the Mohammad Amir cricket career. Within the two years of cricket from the good to worst times everything Mohammad Amir had witnessed.
MOHAMMAD AMIR COMEBACK TO CRICKET:
After spending the five years outside the cricket and lost the most crucial phase of any fast bowler career from the age of 20-24. In 2016, Mohammad Amir returned to the cricket field and it was completely different Mohammad Amir the pace was reduced and swing was not that lethal like it was in 2009 or 2010. One has to believe that being away from the cricket field for such a long time has brought the complete change in the bowling style of a pacer. The numbers which were better before were now not that good for Mohammad Amir. There were hardly too many good moments for Mohammad Amir except some few like the Champions Trophy 2017 Final where he destroyed the Indian line-up to help Pakistan to lift the trophy very easily. While in the 2019 World Cup, Mohammad Amir was the leading wicket-taker for Pakistan with 17 Wickets. Soon after he announced his retirement from red-ball cricket at the age of 28 to only play limited overs cricket for Pakistan. The experts around the world were unhappy with his decision at such an age.
After playing against England earlier this year, it was expected Mohammad Amir to be the part of team for the New Zealand tour but he was not picked up for the tour and he has decided to drop the curtains of his career after such decision of not picking him up without the reason and he has said the behaviour of team management and Pakistan Cricket board was unacceptable. In a career for 11 years, Mohammad Amir has picked up 81 wickets in 61 ODIs and 119 wickets in 36 tests. Again these numbers won’t give the clear picture of Expectational pacer who now termed as average bowler otherwise he would have been next Wasim Akram for cricketing world for sure.
Also Read | Wasim Akram - The Magician Of Reverse Swing
