Pakistan vs England: Rehan Ahmed’s promising debut in Karachi

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Rehan Ahmed made his debut only in May

Rehan Ahmed is younger than Facebook, Strictly Come Dancing and Professional T20 Cricketer.

His father is only two years older than James Anderson, who was playing in his Tenth Test on the day Ahmed was born. Club cricketers everywhere will have had their pieces of equipment longer than they have been alive.

From a cricket perspective, the leg-spinner Ahmed has always done things in a hurry.

He was bowling, flippers and sliders before the age of ten. And by the age of 11, he was dismissing England’s past and present captains, Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes, at Lord’s. A year later, he was impressing the late great Shane Warren.

Now, at the age of 18 and 126 days, he has played Test cricket at a younger age than any other man to wear an England shirt. You have to go back to 1899 to find an English player with less than three first-class matches for Ahmed on his Test debut.

For someone who is used to moving through life at a fast pace, Ahmed found his feet in Test cricket by slowing down.

Understandably, his first spell on the first day of the third Test against Pakistan in Karachi was tense.

He seemed a little rushed, his five in the morning session cost 37 runs. Leg-spin is the hardest art in cricket to execute at the best of times, not to mention being just four months short of legal adulthood and bowling for Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, two of the greatest Pakistanis to ever pull a blade.

Returning after lunch, Ahmed was relaxed and ready to rip.

The catch faded from his right hand to his left and he tugged at the shoulders of his shirt as if he had to borrow it from an older boy. He took two steps and then swooped into the crease, unleashing flat-leg breaks and devilish googlies.

With googly, Ahmed was trapped by Saud Shakeel on his first beta portal. After Shaquille had a left-hand touchdown to one pulled away, the next ball, a leg break, caught the inside rim and was caught by a diving Ollie Pope at short leg. Ahmed was mocked.

Not the longest, Ahmed has grown in stature. He was the bowler when Babar ran out and Ahmed tortured Faheem Ashraf, who had so far played in the wrong line found himself in Bakerloo when he should have been on the circle.

For a long time Ahmed outplayed England first-choice Jack Leach but Leach managed to win the last three wickets to finish with 4-140 – the seasoned old professional teaching the youngster how to feast on rabbit pie.

However, Ahmed’s 2-89 made him the youngest leg-spinner to take two wickets in a Test innings for 17 years.

“Maybe the best day of my life so far,” Ahmed said to the Test Match Special with a steady smile.

“I was so nervous. It was good to shake off the first time, and then slowly settle down.

“As time went on, I felt more comfortable, like it was a good place to be. I wasn’t thinking ‘do this or do that.’”

Rehan Ahmed has caused problems for Pakistan’s fight with his differences

Ahmed’s day began with him receiving the England cap, Naeem’s father at his side, from former captain Nasir Hussain.

Hussain was captain when England last played a Test in Karachi, in 2000. They had a spinner in their team too, even if it turned out to be the last time Ian Salisbury played for England.

In his 22 years, England have selected five other players ahead of Ahmed and they are Chris Schofield, Scott Borthwick, Adil Rashid, Mason Crane and Matt Parkinson. Only Rashid has played more than two Tests.

If English cricket has long dreamed of finding its own version of the Warne, in our country the collective misunderstanding of leg-spin is only matched by the collective failure to choose the Warne flipper.

Fortunately for Ahmed, he has a captain at Stokes and a coach in Brendon McCollum whose whole ethos is to take the pressure off the players. They made the prospect of failure less frightening than Winnie the Pooh after a few drinks.

“There’s not a lot of pressure to perform, just to have fun,” said Stokes. “You only make your debut once, you can never go back again. If we can make him feel like he’s had a ball of time out there and walk with wickets and run, that would be great.”

Not that Ahmed is likely to be bothered by the challenge of playing at the highest level. Those who know him speak of his immense confidence, not to mention an insatiable desire to have a bat or ball in his hand at every possible opportunity.

During The Hundred, Southern Brave coach Mahela Jayawardene ordered Ahmed to take the day off from training. Ahmed snuck into the net anyway.

Rahim Ali, Ahmed’s childhood mentor who now works with him in Leicestershire, told BBC Sport: “We were playing away against Northants. I was in the hotel and around 11 at night I could hear balls on a bat.

“I knocked on the wall, then texted to see what room he was in—he was around. He said he was trying out his new racquet the next day.”

Perhaps the closest thing to throwing Ahmed off his stride came after the conclusion in Karachi.

Saqlan Mushtaq, the legendary spinner and now the coach of the Pakistan national team, was talking about Ahmed.

“It was an absolutely amazing performance,” said Saqlain. “I really liked his control. The most important thing is his confidence. He has a lot of potential. He looks really good for the England team.”

Ahmed was listening in the back of the room.

“I didn’t want to hear that,” he said, “it stimulated me a bit.”

Ahmed may have to get used to it. This was a very promising start.

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