Saeed Ajmal is "very confident" that all of his deliveries will soon be within the 15 degree limit permitted by the International Cricket Council after working on his action with former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.
It will be welcome news for Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes who said two weeks ago he woud be keen to resign Ajmal for 2015 should he successfully pass the ICC biomechanics re-test.
Ajmal, who wants to be initially cleared to play in the 2015 World Cup, was banned from playing international cricket after his action was reported during the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test in Galle in August.
But the spin star who took 63 wickets in nine LV = County Championship matches for Worcestershire last season, has been working closely with Saqlain to remodel his action to meet ICC guide-lines.
Saeed has now returned to Pakistan and the PCB will decide when to send the 37-year-old for his official ICC re-test.
A PCB official said: "He will now appear before the PCB bowling action review committee which will decide his future course of action.
"In all probability Saeed will be asked to first play a first class match from next week before the committee decides to advise the PCB to send him for the ICC biomechanics test.
"He has to play at least one match and bowl long spells in match conditions with four cameras monitoring his every delivery. Only then will it be clear when he can appear for the ICC test."
Ajmal, who spoke with Rhodes at Loughborough last month, said: "It's been a difficult time. It's been frustrating as I've had to go back to the basics of spin bowling, right back to the start and work through the whole process.
"Most of my deliveries are now within the 15-degree limit. The ICC's rules stipulate that all deliveries have to be under 15 degrees and I'm very confident that I will achieve that target."
Saqlain, in an interview with the BBC, said: "We've changed the action and follow through. We have changed his horizontal bowling arm movement and, at the moment, we are very positive.
"There is massive improvement – 60 to 70, maybe even 70 to 80% we have changed and improved his action."
Rhodes stated last month: "Would I still love to have Saeed back? Very much so. We just want him to pass this test. If he passes this test, then he knows, and that's what I spoke to him about, we'll stand by him and give him a go.
"Why wouldn't we want to stand by him. In many ways, he was an instrumental part of our promotion challenge.
"We want to give him every opportunity to play for us in Division One should he pass his test.
"He loves Worcester. Without reading his mind, I do feel he would quite keen. We've then got potential hurdles of other areas like the Pakistan Board needing to give a No Objection Certificate. Hopefully they would do that."
