Pakistan left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir is one of the finest quick bowlers of his generation. When he debuted as a teenager, the world seemed to be at his feet. He bowled at high pace, swung the ball late and had pretty much every batsmen struggling.

Then the 2010 London Test spot fixing scandal happened. And cricket lost one of its most talented cricketers of this generation for five years.

But as soon as his international ban was completed, Amir was ushered back into the Pakistan set-up in all three formats.

The last three years since his comeback have been a bit up and down for Amir. He has been good but off colour many times.

While his outstanding spell in the Champions Trophy final against India will remain etched  in the memory of fans across the world, it is also true that it is his only three-wicket haul in ODIs since January 2017.

In fact, his ODI performances since the Champions Trophy have been poor. In eight ODIs, Amir has picked up just three wickets and gone wicketless in five games. Also, he has not completed his quota of overs since the Champions Trophy last year.

Even in Pakistan’s Asia Cup opener against Hong Kong in Dubai on Sunday, Amir looked well short of his best.

Not only did Amir go wicketless in his seven overs, he didn’t look like he was about to get a bagful of scalps. It was his third straight ODI where he went wicketless after two in Zimbabwe.

His fellow left-arm quick Usman Khan look a couple of levels up against a weak Hong Kong outfit. You could see from afar that batsmen were getting hurried into their strokes when facing Usman and Hasan Ali. With Amir, it just wasn’t happening.

Maybe Amir is saving himself for India. Like he did in the Champions Trophy final at The Oval. However, with top class left-armers like Junaid Khan and the younger and quicker Shaheen Afridi in the squad, how soon before the team management decides to look elsewhere?