Pakistani pacers rarely breached the 140 kmph mark throughout the Perth Test.
Pakistan succumbed to an embarrassing 360-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the opening Test in Perth. The visitors conceded 487 and 233/5 (declared) across the two innings at the Optus Stadium.
The pace attack featuring Shaheen Afridi, Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad rarely breached the 140 kmph mark throughout the Perth Test, something that did not sit well with Waqar.
Speaking on ESPN, Waqar Younis didn’t filter his words as he said Pakistani fast bowlers were not exciting to watch in the first Test and were bowling like medium-pacers or slow-medium-pacers.
"Thing that I'm worried about is that always when we come to Australia, one thing that excites is the fast bowling and this time around I'm not seeing that," Waqar said.
"I'm seeing medium-pacers or slow-medium-pacers, allrounders, there's no real pace. People used to come and watch Pakistan pace bowlers really running in hard and bowling 150 clicks [kph], and that's what I'm not seeing there," he further added.
In particular, Waqar was not happy with Shaheen’s display and went to say that the left-arm pacer should not be playing cricket if he is not fit.
"I'm not really sure what's wrong with him. If he's not fit, if he's got some issues, he needs to go away from the game and fix that because if you are going to carry on like that you are going to become a medium-pacer. He used to bowl 145-150kph and used to swing that ball. What I'm seeing now, yes there's a little bit of swing but his pace is way down… and that is not going to get him wickets,” he remarked.
The second Test between Pakistan and Australia is slated to be held at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26.