It’s nice to return to Pakistan and see my family but I would have preferred to have returned at the end of the county season and after taking 100 wickets!

The broken finger I sustained against Worcestershire last week, when I attempted a caught and bowled, was really frustrating and meant I had to leave the season with four weeks to go. Essex still needed me for the four-day game in our push for promotion and for the Pro40 also.

Still, I played in every form of the game and did well in each competition and managed to finish with 73 wickets {40 in first-class at an average of 21.30, 20 in Twenty20 Cup at 13.80, seven in Pro40 at 18.28 and six in the Friends Provident Trophy at 23.33). I don’t think that is bad given that I started the season a month late because I stayed to see the birth of my son and now I am leaving a month early. But like I said it would have been more satisfying to have taken 100 wickets for the second straight season.

The injury is just one of those things in cricket which you cannot do anything about, you cannot change destiny.

At first the doctors believed it was broken but an x-ray showed a dislocation rather than a break and I am hoping that I may not need surgery. I will be seeing a doctor in Karachi on Wednesday and he will look at the MRI I brought with me from England on CD and decide whether I need to have an operation to put the dislocation back into place.

There is movement in my fingers, there is not much bruising and I haven’t even got that much pain, like I would if it was broken, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will just be able to rest it for the six weeks that I have been advised.

My next cricket is at the end of October for Habib Bank, while my next commitment for Pakistan is likely to be against India in January. By then I will be completely fit. I have never in my career had any serious injury until this happened. I have never broken a bone so I am hoping this will be my last injury for a long time.     

My season with Essex has been important as without this I would not have had any bowling. The Pakistan Cricket Board have not been too happy in the past that I have bowled a lot of overs for Essex, but this year I have had more support than usual, from players like David Masters and Graham Napier. It has been a real team effort.

It's very unusual that a country can go a whole year and not play any Test cricket as Pakistan will do this year. I would urge the PCB to please look to increase our Test schedule. I like the fact there are always plenty of one-day events and I would love to be part of them but failing that I want to be playing more Test cricket.

I sympathise with the PCB as countries are showing reluctance to come to Pakistan  and we were unfortunate this year with Australia’s tour being postponed but still we need more Test matches otherwise we will not improve our position in the rankings. My last bowl in a Test was at Bangalore in December. 

Finally, I would like to mention how pleased I am to bring back a winners’ medal after Essex won the Friends Provident Trophy. We played excellently in that Lord’s final this month against Kent and fully deserved our success.