The rise of Pakistan’s Test team: Ajmal, Azhar, and Wahab’s favourite UAE moments

In Part 3 of a five-part series on the rise of the Pakistan Test team, Paul Radley talks to Saeed Ajmal, Azhar Ali and Wahab Riaz about their favourite Test moments in the UAE.

Saeed Ajmal gave England fits in early 2012 with the threat of his new 'teesra' delivery - which, he admits, was all a bluff. Satish Kumar / The National

This is Part 3 of a five-part series in the lead-up to the first Test between Pakistan and West Indies in the UAE, starting on Thursday, looking at the rise of the Pakistan Test team.

Pakistan's rise to the top of the Test rankings while exiled in the UAE since 2009 has had its fair share of compelling theatre:

Yasir Shah diving across the turf like a professional footballer, then being swamped by his teammates after sealing a last over win against England in Dubai.

Pakistanis and New Zealanders putting out their bats against the white railings in front of the Sharjah pavilion, in remembrance of Phillip Hughes.

Misbah-ul-Haq going all Vivian Richards and lacing Australia all over Abu Dhabi.

Every journey to the top has seminal moments, and Pakistan's rise as an elite team in the Test format was built on more than a few. In the third part of our look at Pakistan's rise to the top of Test cricket, three of their stars reminisce about specific phases of play that were telling steps on the ascent.​

• PART 1: David Kendix explains the maths

• PART 2: In UAE, an existential longing for home

• PART 4: The secret to Pakistan's UAE success

• PART 5: Misbah-ul-Haq, a record that does not skip

Saeed Ajmal v England, January 17, 2012 in Dubai

• First Test: Pakistan won by 10 wickets

• Seven for 55 and three for 42

Saeed Ajmal has taken more wickets that anyone else in Tests in the UAE, with the next best – Yasir Shah – still 25 wickets short of Ajmal’s 67.

The winter of 2012 was the peak of Ajmal. His 24-wicket return shattered the world’s No 1 Test side, as England were handed a series whitewash.

Many Pakistan players regard the thrashing they meted out to the English back then as the high point of their time playing Tests in the UAE. The affable Ajmal, typically, regards the memories of that win in under three days as great fun, starting with that series-opening seven-wicket haul.

Ajmal’s view

“It was at that time that I introduced the ‘teesra’, and the England team were scared about my new variety. I don’t know why they were scared. I was bluffing!

“At that time, I just bowled straight, between the stumps. And every one was missing the bat and hitting the pads. I got five lbws in that innings [Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and James Anderson]. I think they were all thinking about my teesra, but I was just bowling straight and offbreaks. I was so happy, because I was only bluffing.

“The bluffing worked. Sometimes Shane Warne used to do it against England, and it worked for him, too, so I thought I’d try it.

“I was bowling flat, at the stumps, and they were missing straight balls. That was my best bowling in Tests.

“Our Test team was not that good at the time, and we were facing the world’s No 1 team. Our coach just told us to concentrate on our batting and bowling, and I wanted to take wickets against them.

“We knew they were scared against spinners, not against fast bowlers. I told Abdul Rehman [the left-arm spinner, who also took 19 wickets in the series], we just needed to bowl between the stumps, with a little bit of extra pace, because the English batsmen didn’t know which way the ball was going.

“So we sent the ball flat, about 95kph, and straight, and they were completely missing it.

After one or two overs, they were losing their temperament and trying to hit a big shot. They continued that way in all three Test matches.

“Pietersen was always my favourite wicket. I played against him recently in a charity game in Surrey, and got his wicket. I enjoyed that.

“But the player who really surprised me back then was Ian Bell. He was in form, one of the best batsmen in the world when they arrived, but, I think, three times I got him in the first over.

“England arrived as the best team in the world, but we completely outplayed them. Abu Dhabi, in the next Test, was amazing.

“They needed 145 to win in the fourth innings, but they were all out for 72. Their batsmen seemed lost. That really surprised us.”

Azhar Ali v Australia, November 2, 2014 in Abu Dhabi

• Second Test: Pakistan won by 356 runs

• 109 and 101 not out

Azhar Ali has been one of the invisible heroes of Pakistan’s rise in Test cricket. Now age 31, he has played 49 Tests, in eight different countries, but not once in his homeland.

Despite being the captain in one-day international cricket, he remains an understated figure in the batting line-up in the long format.

Rarely has that been more apparent than against Australia in the two-Test whitewash of 2014.

The unfussed right-hander scored 292 runs, averaging 97.33 for each trip he made to the crease. That was still a long way short of Younis Khan’s series-record haul of 468.

And, in the second match thrashing of the Australians in Abu Dhabi, Azhar scored two centuries, the latter coming on the fifth day of the Test. It laid the platform for Australia’s biggest loss in 34 years, and was Pakistan’s largest win, in terms of runs, over that opposition.

Azhar’s part in it all is easily forgotten, though, seeing as Misbah-ul-Haq also scored a century in each innings.

The captain’s second one was the series headliner, too, as it equalled Viv Richards’ record for the fastest in Tests, arriving as it did in 56 balls.

No matter, though. Azhar is content being a quiet achiever.

Azhar’s view

“Scoring a hundred against Australia is a big thing. To do it twice in one Test match is something you really just dream of. It was an exceptional feeling at the time. I still look back at it as being one of the biggest moments of my career.

“We won that Test match convincingly and beat them 2-0, so that was a really important moment for us as a team.

“I was not worried at all by being overshadowed by Younis or Misbah. It is a team game. I was really happy for each of my teammates who contributed to that win.

“A 2-0 victory against Australia doesn’t come around very often. They are a tough side. Beating them was a big achievement.

“Younis was exceptional in that tour, scoring three centuries back to back. And in that game in Abu Dhabi, Misbah also scored each-innings centuries. All the batsmen scored runs, and it might even have been the best series our batsmen have had ever.

“Everyone scored runs, and the No 6 batsman [Asad Shafiq, who batted twice across the two Tests] didn’t even get to bat in most of the innings.

“It was a great achievement by our team.”

Wahab Riaz v England, October 22, 2015 in Dubai

• Second Test: Pakistan won by 178 runs

• Four for 66 and one for 78

Wahab Riaz has a hard-earned reputation for being hard-done-by.

The bowling feat he is best known for? That day against Shane Watson in Adelaide, which ultimately garnered the criminally unspectacular figures of two for 54 from nine overs.

Neither of his victims was Shane Watson, his side lost, and then went out of the World Cup ignominiously. And Riaz himself earned a rebuke from the International Cricket Council, presumably for crimes against bland cricket.

The same has happened to him in the long format, too.

Against England, in the first innings of the second Test of last winter’s series, the left-arm fast-bowler returned with similarly tepid figures of four for 66 in 19 overs.

Some of his efforts had bordered on superhuman. And yet he did not even get the basic reward of a five-wicket haul.

On the third morning of the Test, he bowled nine overs in searing heat in the airless bowl that is the Dubai International Stadium.

In the ninth over of the spell, he hit Stuart Broad with an 143kph bouncer.

Riaz was getting faster and faster, when logic supposed he should have been wilting.

He accounted for Joe Root, who was probably the form batsman in the world at the time, as well as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. That spell, worth three for 15, tilted the match in Pakistan’s favour.

England never managed to recover the lost ground for the remainder of series.

Wahab’s view

“Thinking about that day really boosts me, even now. All the credit goes to Waqar Younis. He called me up in the evening after the second day.

“We were shattered. England’s batsmen had been scoring all over the ground.

“Waqar called me and the other bowlers up in the room. He said this is what we were going to have to do.

“I knew that I had to bowl really well, and I was more focused then.

“It was about my focus and intentions when I went into the ground.

“It is a game of cricket, and, at times, you will be struck for boundaries, you will be struck for runs, but if you are mentally really tough, you can make a good comeback.

“On that day, I had it in my mind I had to restrict them. I got the wicket of Root, the ball was reversing as well, and I thought at that point I had to take my chance. I love giving whatever I have got.

“When you are getting wickets, you can get some momentum. I am the sort of bowler who, if I bowl for a bit longer and get into a rhythm, I can bowl faster and faster and faster the more overs I bowl.

“Once in New Zealand, I bowled an 11-over spell straight away. I was creating chances, and when that happens, I pump myself to go on and on and on.”

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