What if... Mohammad Asif's career didn't end prematurely?

Mohd Asif (PC: Twitter)

'Duniya hila ke rakh di thi' - These were the words of confident Mohammad Asif, who believed he shook up the world of cricket after his tyrannizing career in fast bowling. Not just the batters, but his world was also shaken up after the nightmarish controversy in 2010. Except for this time, it was quite literally. 

There is something about these Pakistani fast bowlers, they are not produced, they are inherited. From one generation to another, sometimes better than the other. It is in their blood to bowl briskly, with unbelievable control that is at times tough to imagine.

Asif, the 39-year-old who once was no stranger to being at the helm of Pakistan's ever-so-talented bowling lineup, found himself dumped after the 2010 spot-fixing scandal that he feels is still hard done by as compared to his former teammate Mohammad Amir who made a comeback to the national side.

The talent that needed no taming

Mohd Asif (PC: Twitter)

When Asif arrived on the scene, he was more than capable of making the batters dance to his beats and the best part, it was all intentional. His deliveries would cut in or away as if he had a switch at his disposal. 

Although his career never reached the stage of maturity, so he was the best bowler in the game that he never became. Unplayable at times, the right-armer was considered the deadliest at his peak, so much so that some batters felt their time was over in the game after facing him.

However, if one could imagine his years getting stretched from five to fifteen, then you would know how much more capable he could have been with all that ability.

It was believed that his name would have been taken in the same sentence as Dale Steyn and James Anderson had he been there atleast till the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

A career little too short

Mohd Asif (PC: Twitter)

Those 106 Test wickets would never justify what batters had to face, nor less, this number would have been 506 if not more. None of the deliveries he bowled was without a purpose, if it is not a wicket, there is a bigger plan underneath.

When he delivered, the world watched, and you could ask VVS too, why he could never watch that ball. The pace was there, but the control was what that made him the most feared among the crop.

In the current scenario, when the batters would be going for the kill in the T20 format, he would be standing there and waiting for his turn to make them feel that they should look to target another bowler. In the 35 T20Is he played, 50 wickets at an average of around 21 was too good to be ignored.

Just five years of international cricket was enough to leave a mark then a few more would have been historical. But, if I have to put it in words, Asif's belief was what took him to the top and, conversely, down later.

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