3 reasons behind the failure of Mohammad Amir
Mohammad Amir is probably going through the roughest patch of his career. Expectations from him have become inversely proportional to his performances over the past two series. There are a lot of stresses climbing up his brain.
Coaches and the captain are expecting him to be the Amir of old and reach up to the standards. He's been out of the touch for a prolonged period of time.
Let us take a look at three reasons why Amir is struggling to deliver of late.
1) Wrist effect:
Amir is such a weapon of demolition for his team when he swings the leather like a pro golfer swings the club. He is a treat for the eyes, a mind reliever for the fans, a peril for the opposition. But, he's not as effective as he was. People say that he had lost his swing when he made his comeback. That's not true to all extents.
Before his international comeback, he made the white ball talk in the BPL. And who can forget his mighty first over against India in Asia Cup 2016? It doesn' mean that he can only swing it in Bangladesh. He lost the swing in white ball pretty much after that.
The reason behind that is the wrist position. One can see in replays that he's not flicking his wrist nowadays for his outswingers to left-handers. He is just positioning the seam towards the slip and nothing more than that apparently. No more cocking of the wrists towards his left to curve the ball.
This technique is undoubtedly effective for the Dukes, not for the Kookaburra whites. He is compelled to use this technique to maintain his 140+ pace. It should be reconsidered for him to go back to his old technique.
2) Ball releasing Posture
The other thing counting for his ineffectiveness is his more front-on release. He's bowling chest-on rather than side-on which is not helping him bowl outswingers. It isn't helping him to bowl good bouncers as well, eventually sitting them up to the batsman's range.
He is also bowling wider of the crease, affecting his outswingers. It is good for him to angle the ball into the left-handers but he shouldn't be bowling those again and again and use the trump card of any left-arm fast bowler, "the outswinger", more often.
3) Pressure on his shoulders
The other thing for his under-performance could be the immense amount of pressure being put on him. Portraying him the lead of the attack, expecting a lot from him and raising the stakes high for him can also be a reason for his ineffectiveness.
He should be considered a regular opening bowler as the other ones to ease his nerves. The post-match talks are putting him under the radar as well. Now that he is ignored for series against Australia, he could work on his techniques in first-class cricket and come back stronger.