Diary
We missed Asif and Gul in India series
By Shoaib Akhtar
Dec 13, 2007, 05:38

It’s disappointing to have lost the Test series in India but the bottom line is that we didn’t have enough pace in our bowling, there was no one there to back me up.

Imran Khan, who is a man and former player I admire and respect greatly, singled me out in his television analysis and said I should be disappointed with myself. I realise he was being kind in saying I am a match-winner, but I can’t win Test matches on my own.

When I built up pressure we weren’t able to maintain that pressure on the Indian batsmen. I’m not blaming my team-mates – if Sami had been around with me, Asif and Gul the series would definitely have turned out differently. We cannot expect too much from the inexperienced guys at this level. It stands to reason that any team is going to miss players like Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. Imran had players like (Abdul) Qadir and Wasim (Akram) to back him up or Sarfraz (Nawaz) before those days.

Before the second Test in Calcutta the doctor said he would be amazed if I played the Test match because I needed two or three more days rest but I played and bowled hard for my team. The team management wanted me to play and I did. In hindsight I shouldn’t have played but I was trying to serve my country and do the right thing.

Then in Bangalore, although people might think I let my team down in the first innings when the other guys had to share my overs, I thought I had slipped a disc the pain was so bad when I was in my first spell. This was pain I never felt before the game started. If I had bowled through that who knows what damage I could have done, I could have been out for six months. And when I went for the MRI it took an hour to get to the hospital with the traffic, an hour to have the scans done, an hour to get back, so it’s not like I didn’t want to bowl, far from it. You just can’t expect one bowler to win a series on his own. That’s totally wrong. Even Wasim and Waqar (Younis) won matches together.

There are always people who will criticise me whatever I do but hopefully the fact I played the whole series will silence a few of my doubters. I took six wickets in the first Test and we played really well there in Delhi and if we had been able to set them 300 instead of 200 we could have won that match and maybe gone on to win the series. That was a pivotal moment. So although it’s disappointing to have been outplayed for most of the series and to lose 1-0, there are positives to take away, such as Misbah’s batting, who has always had that ability and is now showing it.

I’m now going to take some rest and I’m just hoping Australia’s tour to Pakistan in March will not be affected by what is going on at home. Their players will be well looked after and they won’t face any problems. It would be a great series and I always enjoy facing the Australian batsmen so fingers crossed that they come.

As for the Indians going to Australia, they have a slim chance of winning if they play on fast tracks as is usually the case. The Indian batsmen don’t like the pace, but who does? Going from these docile pitches in India to those pitches over there will take a huge adjustment for their batsmen and also for the bowlers, knowing what length to bowl. I feel sorry for the Indians that they don’t have more time before that first Test.  It will be a good series to follow.