Wasim Akram Raises Alarm on Pakistan’s Test Cricket Decline
Wasim Akram has seen enough.
Pakistan’s greatest fast bowler cut a frustrated figure in Lahore as he laid bare his concerns over the state of the country’s Test cricket, aiming his sharpest criticism not at individuals, but at the system that keeps failing to produce world-class batters.
The trigger, he said, should have been obvious: a home-and-away Test series defeat to Bangladesh. For a country that once prided itself on its red-ball pedigree, that result should have set off sirens inside the Pakistan Cricket Board. In Akram’s eyes, it barely caused a ripple.
“That series should have forced immediate corrective measures,” he told reporters, questioning why so little had changed after such a clear warning sign.
‘Ten years of PSL – where is one batter?’
Akram’s main grievance sits at the heart of Pakistan’s modern cricketing project: the Pakistan Super League.
The PSL is celebrated globally as a factory for fast bowlers and white-ball specialists. Akram, though, wanted to know what it has done for the format that still defines a cricketing nation’s depth.
“It has been 10 years since the PSL started, but has a single batter been produced by the PSL?” he asked. “Yes, we have produced a few bowlers but tell me have we produced any noteworthy batting talent?”
The question hung heavy. Pakistan’s conveyor belt of quicks has never really stopped. The batters, though, have not kept pace.
For Akram, that imbalance explains why Pakistan can still compete in white-ball cricket, yet look increasingly fragile in the longer format. He did not sugarcoat it. The state of Pakistan’s Test cricket, he said, is “bad”.
India’s teenage prodigy as a wake-up call
To underline his point, Akram looked across the border.
He referred to the emergence of a 15-year-old batting talent in India, an apparent nod to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, as the kind of precocious ability Pakistan should be unearthing.
“I think when we produce a batting talent like the 14-year old then we will see improvement coming through,” he said, using that example as a mirror held up to Pakistan’s own structures.
The message was clear: the problem is not just technique or temperament at the top level. It is the pipeline.
Coaches won’t fix a broken system
Names always swirl when Pakistan struggle: who should coach, who should be sacked, who should return.
Akram brushed that aside.
Whether the PCB appoints him, Gary Kirsten, or anyone else, he argued, the coach will still be drawing from the same limited pool of players. Changing the man in the dugout without changing the machinery beneath, in his view, is cosmetic.
He called instead for patience with the domestic structure and a genuine long-term plan. Let it run for three to four years, he said. Stop ripping it up every time a series goes wrong.
Only then, he believes, will Pakistan see sustained improvement rather than short-lived surges.
‘Revive club cricket. Spend the money.’
For Akram, the roots of the problem stretch all the way down to the grassroots.
“Club cricket needs to be revived if we want improvement in red ball cricket,” he insisted, going beyond vague calls for reform and putting a number on it. He urged the PCB to spend 100 million rupees each in Karachi and Lahore, arguing that real talent still comes from the club scene.
He also took aim at the revolving door of selection. Pakistan, he said, keep changing faces without confronting the core issues.
There is “consistency” in one sense – the same names keep returning – but no stability. Players come and go, dropped and recalled, while the structural flaws stay untouched.
Technical failings in England exposed
The ongoing Test series in England only deepened his concerns.
Akram criticised Pakistan’s batters for their approach against the home attack, highlighting a basic technical lapse.
“In England in the ongoing series they didn’t move their front foot forward, playing bowlers like Ollie Robinson while standing rooted in the crease,” he said. Against English seamers in their own conditions, that is asking for trouble.
“You need to play with courage,” he added, “but for that, talent is essential.”
In his view, Pakistan’s batters are not just losing on skill; they are losing on conviction.
Fast bowlers under the microscope
Akram also turned to a subject he knows better than almost anyone: fast bowling.
He cautioned against the obsession with raw speed. One thunderbolt at 150 km/h, he said, proves very little. The real examination of a quick is whether he can stay around 140 km/h across an entire day’s work.
That is where fitness, discipline, and genuine class reveal themselves.
He urged fans and pundits to temper the hype around emerging fast bowlers. Let them play, let them grow, and only then decide what they might become.
Shaheen, Akif and missed opportunities
Shaheen Afridi inevitably entered the conversation.
Akram described the left-arm spearhead as an experienced bowler and admitted he did not know why Shaheen’s pace had dipped. Even so, he felt a player of that stature should have been in England for the current series.
He also named Akif Javed as someone he would have liked to see given a chance.
“If it were up to me, I would have asked for Akif Javed, as he bowled well recently in England,” Akram said, hinting at selection calls that, in his view, have not fully aligned with form and conditions.
A legend’s warning
Beneath the criticism lay something more personal. Akram admitted he is as disappointed as any Pakistani by the team’s recent performances. This is not a detached pundit talking; it is a former captain watching a legacy erode.
His broader message to the PCB and to Pakistan cricket was blunt: stop chasing quick fixes, stop cycling through players and coaches, and start repairing the foundations.
Because if Pakistan cannot start producing batters to match their bowlers, and if Test cricket continues on its current slide, how long before a proud red-ball nation becomes just another white-ball side living off memories?
