Former Pakistan seamer Mohammad Asif has claimed that the national team’s current pacers are 9 to 10 years older than what their birth certificates suggest.
Asif also slammed the present crop of Pakistani fast bowlers for their "inability" to bowl long spells.
His comments came after Pakistan’s 101-run defeat in the first Test against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui.
"They are so aged. It is written as 17-18 years on paper, but they are actually 27-28 years old," Asif said on Kamran Akmal's YouTube channel but didn’t mention any names.
"They don't have the flexibility to bowl 20-25 overs. They don't know how to bend the body and they become stiff after a while. They are not able to stand on the field after bowling a 5-6 over spell," he added.
Age fudging has been one of the issues troubling Pakistan cricket for many years. Among the current lot of pacers performing duty in New Zealand are Shaheen Afridi (20) and Naseem Shah (17), Mohammad Abbas (30) and Faheem Ashraf (26).
Asif, who banned by the ICC for five years for his involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing saga, also expressed disappointment over the current fast bowling talents in the national team.
"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."
"These kids do not have the knowledge. They don't know how to keep the batsmen 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," he remarked.
(With PTI inputs)
