Saeed Ajmal was recently suspended by the ICC for an indefinite period due to suspect-bowling action after he failed the test in Brisbane © Getty Images (File Photo)
Saeed Ajmal was recently suspended by the ICC for an indefinite period due to suspect-bowling action after he failed the test in Brisbane © Getty Images (File Photo)
Karachi: Sep 26, 2014
Former Pakistan ace off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq is hoping that suspended bowler Saeed Ajmal would clear his bowling action and represent the country in next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has hired spin legend Saqlain to assist Ajmal in rectifying his bowling action after the ace off-spinner was suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on earlier this month.

Saqlain, who arrived in Lahore on Wednesday and did two sessions with Ajmal at the National Cricket Academy along with Pakistan’s spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and former fast bowler Mohammad Akram, said that their target is to get the off-spinner back before the World Cup, The Dawn reported.

Saqlain said that Ajmal’s body movements are very positive, adding that he’s a fighter and doing all the hard work. He also said that he has special software in his laptop to measure degrees of the bowling arm and the PCB has super slow motion cameras to assist him in helping Ajmal. The former spin legend added that he has got all the technical things required to work with Ajmal and they are quite positive that one would hear good news.

According to the ICC report, none of the deliveries bowled by Ajmal during the eight overs of bio-mechanical testing in Australia came close to meeting the required regulations of 15 degrees elbow extension.

Saqlain was famous for inventing the ‘doosra,’ a delivery that spins away from a right-handed batsman. He took 208 wickets in 49 test matches in between 1995-2004 and 288 wickets in 169 ODIs, the report added.