Posted 1 years ago
Cricket
General
Abrar Ahmed, Pakistan’s new spinner
Abrar Ahmed has demonstrated a meteoric
rise, during the course of a single Test cricket match against England. While
the first four balls appeared run of the mill, the subsequent ones turned out
to be masterful. When faced with a delivery from Ahmed, England’s Zach Crawley
hit a wide shot at what then turned out to be a creative googly that was
unexpected from someone with just 14-first class matches in his experience.
This was also Ahmed just warming up, who then went on to claim 4 more wickets,
to become the third bowler ever, and Pakistan’s first, to dismiss 5 players at
a Test debut before lunch. But that wasn’t all as Abrar Ahmed went on to
dismiss Ben Stokes and Will Jacks too to finally claim a total of 7 wickets.
Ahmed is now England’s new “mystery spinner” that they need to watch out for.
Abrar Ahmed made his debut in professional
cricket explosive fashion too. After having played tape-ball cricket in his
youth, Ahmed was an impressive debutante who claimed 53 wickets during an U-19
season, and was subsequently signed by the Karachi Kings of the Pakistan Super
League. With a promising career ahead of him, all seemed set for Ahmed, before
he suffered an unfortunate injury that kept him out of the sport for two years,
due to a stage five stress fracture, which raised doubts as his role as a spinner.
Abrar’s road back to the top of
professional cricket was not easy, as he was overlooked by PSL teams in 2021.
Finally, he was selected to be a part of a T20 series against England but was
included in any match. With continued performances, he was called upon to make
his international debut against England. According to selector Mohammad Wasim,
Abrar has been in the radar of selectors since his debut, and together with his
current impressive form, was expected to be a worthy addition to Babar Azam’s team.
English seamer Stuart Broad has also expressed admiration for Ahmed, as
according to Broad, it is not easy for a bowler to dismiss Root and Stokes on
their debut. However, he feels that England will be able to tackle Ahmed’s
bowling more with time as further footage of him emerges.
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