Pakistan’s leg-spin sensation Abrar Ahmed starred with the ball on Day 1 of the ongoing second Test against England, as he made his Test debut memorable by wreaking havoc on the tourists’ batting line-up at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Friday (December 9).
The mystery spinner bamboozled the England batters with his variations and returned with the impressive figures of 7/114 to help Pakistan restrict Ben Stokes and his team to 281 on the first day of the ongoing second Test in Multan.
With the bowling figures, the 24-year-old leg-spinner became the 13th Pakistan cricketer to claim a five-wicket haul on debut and the first to take a fifer inside the first session on the opening day of a Test match.
After the end of the opening day’s play in Multan, Abrar’s elder brother, Sajid Ahmed, a fast bowler, revealed how the star spinner picked up cricket at the early age of six.
He also recalled India's historic tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, when Virender Sehwag smashed his famous triple century (309) in the Multan Test, where the Indian legend was the most brutal on the legendary spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, who is now the head coach of the Pakistan cricket team.
Sajid said Abrar was pointing out Mushtaq’s mistakes when Sehwag was brutally hitting him when he was just 6.
Abrar's brother Sajid was quoted as saying by The Indian Express: “I still remember it was the Multan Test, where Virender Sehwag smashed that triple hundred, and he attacked Saqlain Mushtaq the most. Abrar was about six, and he used to point out mistakes in Saqlain bhai's bowling. My father got so annoyed because of his running commentary that he locked him in another room.”
He further recalled how Mushtaq Ahmed had asked Abrar about Abdul Qadir and the then-19-year-old was like who is he? The legend added, “Do you know who is Abdul Qadir?". Abrar came replied: "Ye kaun hai, kabhi naam nahi suna (Who is he, never heard his name).”
Sajid concluded, “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. When he narrated this story to us, we also started laughing. Bachpan se itni deewangi cricket ko le kar aur itne bade legend ko nahi jaanta (He was so passionate about cricket since childhood, but had no clue about such a legend).”
