The young spinner of the national team, Abrar Ahmed, has made his debut against England in the second Test match in Multan and with his good performance, the young bowlers have already set their sights by taking 7 wickets in the first match.
After taking five wickets in the first innings of his very first match, the young spinner took two more wickets before the lunch break, after which the only question on everyone’s lips is who is this young Abrar Ahmed?
Born on October 16, 1998, young spinner Abrar Ahmed was first heard by Pakistani cricket fans when he was selected by the Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Abrar Ahmed is known for his magic ball which saw him take 43 wickets in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy last season.
A fluent Pashto speaker, this young man’s family hails from Shankyari, a small village near Abbottabad, but he was born in Karachi and grew up playing tab-ball cricket.
The youngster, who excelled in googly, legspin as well as carrom ball, caught the attention of local and national coaches when he led Karachi’s Zone Three to the title.
Zone three is considered the weakest of all the seven zones in the city but it was Abrar’s charismatic performance in 2016 that saw the team clinch the title.
In this season he took 53 wickets and due to this he got the attention of local coaches and he continued to improve his performances at Rashid Latif Academy.
Abrar, who has been playing first-class cricket for the last five years, got his real success in the last two years, especially this year when he played the best game for the Sindh team and played a central role in reaching the final.
Known for his long spells, Abrar has bowled over 128 overs in domestic cricket over the last two seasons and has taken a total of 85 wickets so far.
He has taken the most wickets so far on the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium wicket where he has taken 27 wickets in 11 innings so far while at Multan Stadium he has taken 20 wickets at an average of 11.20.
Although Abrar did not achieve much success in the Pakistan Super League, former national team coach Mickey Arthur was impressed with his skills and predicted a bright future for him, while Kumar Sangakkara and Mahila Jayawardene too. Abrar was quite impressed with Ahmed’s bowling.
Abrar Ahmed is inspired by Sri Lankan bowler Ajantha Mendes and West Indian spinner Sunil Narine, and also admires Afghanistan spinner Mujibur Rahman.
After suffering an injury in the Pakistan Super League, he disappeared from the scene for a while, but he did not give up and worked hard to make it to Sindh’s Second XI in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, where he averaged 11.75. Take 57 wickets at an average.
Thanks to this outstanding performance, he was promoted to the first XI of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and managed to take wickets despite not playing continuously and then made it to the national team by taking 43 catches in this season of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Abrar’s coach Mansoor believes that Abrar’s potential has been overlooked in the longer format of the game and that he is a complete package in all three formats of the game with full fitness.
They say that Abrar not only bowls but also knows the art of taking wickets, he has variety in his bowling and due to his excellent bowling control, he can soon become the main bowler of the national team.
Today, this statement of Abrar’s coach Mansoor proved to be absolutely correct.