Mohammad Asif is arguably the most unfulfilled talent in cricket in recent time. The Pakistani swing bowler is regarded as one of the most skilful by many great batsmen. Recently, he recalled an instance from the Karachi Test in 2006 against India. Mohammad Asif stated that Sachin Tendulkar had ‘closed his eyes’ when was facing the bouncers by Shoaib Akhtar.
Akhtar and Tendulkar had a great rivalry when the two played together. It was an even battle as sometimes Tendulkar dominated Akhtar and vice-versa. Notably, Asif was banned from international cricket for his involvement in spot-fixing during a Test match in England in 2010.
Mohammad Asif pointed out that the Test match started with Irfan Pathan picking up a hat-trick and Pakistan’s morale was completely down. But even then Pakistan ended up winning the Test as they bowled India out cheaply in their first innings.
Sachin Tendulkar had his eyes closed: Mohammad Asif
“When the match started, Irfan Pathan claimed a hat-trick in the first over itself. Our morale was down. Kamran Akmal scored a century lower down the order. We scored around 240 runs”.
“When we started bowling, Shoaib Akhtar bowled at extreme pace in that match. I was standing at square leg near the umpire and I myself saw Tendulkar closed his eyes while facing one or two bouncers by Shoaib. The Indians were playing on the back foot and we didn’t allow them to score 240 runs in the first innings. We snatched victory from the jaws of defeat”, Asif said in the Burgerz show.
Pakistan ended up winning the Test series 1-0 after losing the series to India at home 2-1 in 2004. Asif bowled brilliantly in that match and claimed 4 in the first and 3 in the second innings. In the second innings, Faisal Iqbal scored a fine century that helped Pakistan set a target of 341 runs. India tried their best but was bundled out for 265 and lost the test match.
Asif added, “If you remember the Indian team came in 2004, they had a solid batting line-up. Dravid was scoring plenty of runs, Sehwag smashed us at Multan”.
“In 2006 during the Faisalabad, both teams scored 600 runs each. We were worried as their batting line-up was deep, MS Dhoni was batting at number seven or eight”, Asif said who not a part of the squad in 2004 but helped Pakistan win in 2006.
