Abrar Ahmed rebounded to dominate the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and has made his Test debut for Pakistan against England in Multan Five years ago, Mushtaq Ahmed, the then-head coach of Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy in Lahore, asked the 19-year-old “Harry Potter” lookalike Abrar Ahmed: “Do you know Pakistan’s greatest spinner?”
If Abrar’s brother Sajid is to be believed, the former Pakistan leg-spinner couldn’t stop laughing for ten minutes after hearing the response. From Karachi, Sajid Ahmed tells The Indian Express, “Everyone started laughing, and Mushtaq Bhai told him ‘you’ve registered yourself as a leg-spinner, and you don’t know about the greatest we ever produced.'”
We all started laughing when he told us this story. Sajid adds, “He was so passionate about cricket since childhood, but had no idea about such a legend.” “Bachpan se itni deewangi cricket ko le kar”
Muhammad Masroor, Abrar’s coach, defended his student. His own fault; He has always held Sunil Narine in high regard. Masroor stated, “You can’t blame him for not knowing the great Abdul Qadir.”
Shinkiari is a small village on the outskirts of Mansehra near Abbottabad and is home to Pakistan’s newest spin sensation, Abrar. He made his debut against England in the Multan Test. However, in 1977, his father moved to Karachi, where he spent his childhood playing tape-ball cricket. Abrar was a natural at cricket.
His older brother, the fast bowler Shahzad Khan, played for National Bank in the domestic circuit, and his father, Noor Ahmed, was a big Pakistan fan. When Abrar was about six years old, he used to point out Saqlain bhai’s bowling errors. Sajid chuckles as he recalls his father locking him in another room due to his constant commentary.
Abrar, the youngest of eight siblings (five brothers and three sisters), was closer to his mother than the others. Abrar’s mother asked him to memorize the Quran when he was nine years old. For the next two years, Cricket was on the sidelines. He was the smartest of us all. His mother insisted that he study aalima, or Islamic sciences. He also refused his mother’s request for the first time. Sajid recalls him saying, “I want to play cricket, I have no interest in becoming an Aalim.”
“Fingers like iron rods” played tape-ball cricket for the next four years. He heard about a cricket trial at Rashid Latif’s academy one day while returning home. While overseeing the trials, Pakistan’s U-19 coach Muhammad Masroor was awestruck by his variations. “Same grip se carrom ball, leg-spin, googly, slider saare variations daal Raha Tha” (He bowled all variations using the same grip).
He doesn’t have that big of a turn. No one could read his lengths because he was bowling on the stumps. Abrar took 53 wickets for Karachi’s Zonal U-19 team in 2016. Masroor, at the time a fielding coach for Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League, sent Rashid Latif, the franchise’s director of cricket, his videos. Abrar rose to prominence as a potential PSL selection for Karachi in 2017.
He only played two games and didn’t take any wickets, but his brilliant performance against Peshawar Zalmi impressed everyone. Abrar bowled 16 balls and only conceded 17 runs, including seven dots, against Eoin Morgan, who scored 80 off 57 balls. I recollect mentor Mickey Arthur, commander Kumar Sangakkara, Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, everybody was so dazzled,” says Masroor.
No Plagiarism Found