Former Pakistan seamer Mohammad Asif alleged that the Pakistan pacers currently in New Zealand with the national team are much older than what the papers suggest. Commenting on Pakistani bowlers' struggles in Test cricket, Asif claimed that the bowlers don't have the required quality to fifers. “I feel it might have been 5-6 years since a fast bowler took 10 wickets in a match. We used to salivate after seeing the pitches like the ones in New Zealand. There was no question of leaving the ball as a fast bowler. I never used to leave the ball before taking a five-wicket haul,” he stated. “These kids do not have the knowledge. They don’t know how to keep the batsman on the front foot, not give them a single and how to bowl on the wickets. When they try to bowl on the wickets, it goes down the leg-side. They do not have the control,” Asif added.
Speaking to Kamran Akmal, Asif said that some of these bowlers aren't capable of bowling longer spells which is what is hurting their potential. As far as their age is concerned, Asif claimed that they are about 10 years older than what they claim to be.“And they are so aged. It is written as 17-18 years on paper, but they are actually 27-28 years old because they don’t have the flexibility to bowl 20-25 overs. They don’t know how to bend the body; they become stiff. They are not able to stand on the field after bowling a 5-6 over spell,” he said on Akmal's YouTube channel. Asif’s remarks came after Pakistan lost the first Test to New Zealand by 101 runs, under the leadership of stand-in captain Mohammad Rizwan. Among the current lot of Pakistan pacers doing duty in New Zealand, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah are 20 and 17-year-old respectively. Mohammad Abbas is 30 and Faheem Ashraf is 26. Asif was convicted, along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir, of conspiracy charges relating to spot-fixing. On 3 November 2011, Asif was given a one-year prison sentence for his role in the scandal. Asif last played a international game for Pakistan in the year 2010.
