LAHORE - Ace off-spinner Saeed Ajmal will depart for England today (Saturday) to go through unofficial testing on his remodeled action at the newest ICC accredited laboratory at National Cricket Performance Center at Loughborough, situated at Loughborough University.
Ajmal’s tests will be conducted on the November 10 around midday. He will be tested with the ICC’s accredited protocol by Dr Mark King, Chief Biomechanicst at the University. The National Cricket Performance Center at Loughborough is the latest state-of-the-art accredited unit for testing illegal bowling actions/deliveries.
Over the last one month, Ajmal was striving hard on his action here at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), under the supervision of former off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq. Ajmal is reckoned to have significantly reduced the flex in his elbow, though any change is yet to be measured since he had been working without the aid of a biomechanics lab at the NCA.
Ajmal was pretty confident about his improved action and hoped that whenever he made a comeback, he would be more lethal. He added that he had already undergone some informal tests under the supervision of experts so he was going to England confident of clearing the tests.
Ajmal, who turned 37 last month, was suspended from bowling in international cricket by the ICC in September. He was reported after the first Test of Pakistan's tour of Sri Lanka in Galle this August. Subsequent testing of his action at an ICC-accredited facility in Brisbane found his average elbow extension to be more than twice the permissible limit.
In Ajmal's absence, Pakistan brought in left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar and leg spinner Yasir Shah, who took 14 and 12 wickets respectively during Pakistan's 2-0 Test series win over Australia in the UAE. Australia though remained unbeaten in the limited-overs leg of the tour.
Ajmal was very happy with the performance of newcomers and said that he never felt any insecurity with the presence of any spinner in the Pakistan domestic circuit as everyone who worked hard would reap the fruit. During his brief stay in England post testing, Ajmal will also work with Saqlain Mushtaq.