“You need to keep two bowlers whose priority is Test cricket,” Afridi said. “We’ve selected 5 fast bowlers [in the ODI squad] to allow other fast bowlers to rest. It’s not possible to continuously play all three formats for years on end. The pitches are such that even if the spinners are bowling 60-70 overs, they’ll burn themselves out.”
But questions around how seriously Pakistan take the welfare of the fast bowlers will invariably be raised after both fast bowlers were named in the squad for the New Zealand ODIs next week. It suggests conversations around workload management haven’t yet translated into the sort of rest pace bowlers – particularly those boasting high pace – get in other parts of the world. The selection of multiple fast bowlers means Pakistan do have the option of rotating, though with an ODI World Cup at ethe end of this year, it is not inconceivable Naseem and Rauf end up playing all three matches.
There wasn’t much of an element of easing Naseem back into the Test side, with the 19-year-old fast bowler bearing the brunt of the fast bowling responsibilities in each innings. In the first, he would send down 24 overs, more than either Mir Hamza or Hasan Ali, while the 13 he bowled the second time around were the highest among his seam-bowling compatriots.