Hasan Ali strongly reacts to criticism over Pakistan’s pace drop

Pakistan medium pacer Hasan Ali has slammed critics for questioning the pace of his fellow teammates during the current series against Australia.

The Pakistan pacers have barely reached the 140 kph mark in this series, prompting numerous comments from the cricket community.

However, the 29-year-old has stressed that the team is focused on the game and not concerned with external rumours regarding the drop in the bowlers' pace.

“I don’t know whose pace has dropped as my focus has never been just on pace. I’ve never bowled at 150kph. I think it’s better to stick to the area around the top of the off stump," Hasan said in a press conference after Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne.

"I haven’t heard these rumours about pace dropping and we don’t care about them. Our focus is on the game & that’s where it should be," he added.

Recently, former Pakistan coach Waqar Younis recently voiced his concerns about the current group of Pakistan fast bowlers.

“Another thing that I’m worried about is that always when we come to Australia, one thing that excites is the fast bowling and this time around I’m not seeing that. I’m seeing medium pacers or slow medium pacers, allrounders, there’s no real pace. People used to come and watch Pakistan pace bowlers really running in hard and bowling 150 clicks. That’s what I’m not seeing there,” Waqar told ESPNCricinfo.

On Tuesday, after Pakistan managed to keep Australia at 187/3 at Stumps, Hasan Ali was optimistic of Pakistan’s chances in the ongoing game.

“It was a good day as a bowling unit. We were a bit unlucky, we haven’t got a lot of wickets but the best thing is we did not give them enough runs. I think we are a bit ahead of them. We’re looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll bowl them out to minimum runs,” he said.

Remember, The play resumed after a nearly three-hour-long rain delay. The match was interrupted due to rain during the second session on the first day.

Marnus Labuschagne (44) and Travis Head (9) will resume batting for the home side on the second day.

Aamer Jamal claimed the prized scalp of Steve Smith, who scored 26 runs, after the rain delay.

Agha Salman and Hasan Ali bagged one wicket each.

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